Anyone else's car covered in dead midges this hot weather?

dashiell hammett

Both wife and I have black cars and midges (or possibly they are pollen beetles) seem to be attracted to them like mad this weather. Every night as it gets cooler both cars get covered in them and come the morning most are dead. If I don't clean them off the wiper blades in the morning and go to use the screen wash I end up with midge soup all over the wind screen.

Anyone else had this recently and anyone know what it is that attracts them?

Voodoomelon

Noticed this just the other morning. Looked like a midge massacre. Just don't touch them, a quick spin blows them off.

Wossack

ironically, it could be the screen wash, if its somewhat sweet smelling?

Victor Meldrew

dashiell hammett wrote: »

Both wife and I have black cars and midges (or possibly they are pollen beetles) seem to be attracted to them like mad this weather. Every night as it gets cooler both cars get covered in them and come the morning most are dead. If I don't clean them off the wiper blades in the morning and go to use the screen wash I end up with midge soup all over the wind screen.

Anyone else had this recently and anyone know what it is that attracts them?

I'm driven demented by tree sap leaving little droplets or white flakes on the car. In the heat it is necessitating weekly washing...

The Real B-man

Bit of Bug & Tar Remover essential this time of year! especially long Motorway journeys cant see the numbeplate half the time!

dashiell hammett

Victor Meldrew wrote: »

I'm driven demented by tree sap leaving little droplets or white flakes on the car. In the heat it is necessitating weekly washing...

Whatever you do don't park under a Lime tree. We don't have so many street trees in Ireland as they do in the UK but if you do park under one wash the sap off asap as it will actually strip off the surface of the paint!

Sycamore which is much more common is bad but Lime really is a killer, iirc its the sap sucking insects on the tree leaves which cause the problem and both Sycamore a Lime are covered in them during the summer and its worse in hot weather.

Its a disaster driving anyway in the evenings. Spend ages saturday washing the car. Drove across the country on sunday evening and the front of the car is covered in all manner of dead insects again :mad:.

YbFocus

Don't talk to me, it's a constant losing battle with them.

What makes it easier is the bug and tar and a good bit of polish down on the surface.
Next time you wash it they'll come off real easy

dashiell hammett

Kathryn Handsome Topic wrote: »

Its a disaster driving anyway in the evenings. Spend ages saturday washing the car. Drove across the country on sunday evening and the front of the car is covered in all manner of dead insects again :mad:.

The ones I'm on about just descend on my parked up car in the early evening and then just die leaving every surface that will hold a bug covered in them. All over the wiper blades, the boot, the bonnet, the roof, all around the tops of the window and door seals and when I open the boot I can pick up a full dustpan full of the dead buggers in the channel around the boot seal.

For some reason they prefer black? I've had other cars next to mine that were red and silver and all the midges were swarming over my black car.

Yakuza

I don't notice that many midges, probably because both our cars have resident spiders in the door mirrors. I clean them of webs in the evening, and overnight there are four new webs between both cars. The wiper blades are another favourite location for them to set up shop. With the weather being so good these last few weeks, I've had little occasion to use them bar washing a layer of dust off the windscreen when starting off.

Matt Simis

dashiell hammett wrote: »

Both wife and I have black cars and midges (or possibly they are pollen beetles) seem to be attracted to them like mad this weather.

Ah thats what they are!
http://www.google.ie/imgres?um=1&safe=off&sa=N&hl=en&biw=1682&bih=766&tbm=isch&tbnid=e5RBDfWiv8lx8M:&imgrefurl=http://www.farmersguardian.com/watch-for-pollen-beetle-activity/7668.article&docid=-rR-qlzw9_UuGM&imgurl=http://www.farmersguardian.com/Pictures/inline/i/h/c/Pollen_Beetles.jpg&w=458&h=500&ei=4_PnUeD8AcratAa6hYGICA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:0,s:0,i:80&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=185&tbnw=160&start=0&ndsp=23&tx=108&ty=71

My grey car's water channels are covered in thousands of these, as about 1cm black deep of their bodies in spots, they land on the green grey paint (think its water I suspect), instantly fry in the heat and die.

dashiell hammett

Matt Simis wrote: »

Ah thats what they are!
http://www.google.ie/imgres?um=1&safe=off&sa=N&hl=en&biw=1682&bih=766&tbm=isch&tbnid=e5RBDfWiv8lx8M:&imgrefurl=http://www.farmersguardian.com/watch-for-pollen-beetle-activity/7668.article&docid=-rR-qlzw9_UuGM&imgurl=http://www.farmersguardian.com/Pictures/inline/i/h/c/Pollen_Beetles.jpg&w=458&h=500&ei=4_PnUeD8AcratAa6hYGICA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:0,s:0,i:80&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=185&tbnw=160&start=0&ndsp=23&tx=108&ty=71

My grey car's water channels are covered in thousands of these, as about 1cm black deep of their bodies in spots, they land on the green grey paint (think its water I suspect), instantly fry in the heat and die.

Thats them.

dudara

Came home one evening after driving from Cork to Dublin and the number plate was covered in them. It looked like one of those science experiments where you place a magnet under a sheet of paper and shake iron filings on top. A veritable carpet.

MetzgerMeister

My car is also getting covered in them but funnily enough, not the other cars in the house. My opinion is that they descend onto cars just as the dew is settling on the roof etc. and they're after the water. I washed my car one evening last week and they were all over the car and me when I was washing it but once I had the whole car dried, they disappeared.

Then for the craic, I left a bucket of clean water at the side of the car one night, came out the next morning to find loads of them dead in the water and very few on my car.

They will be along the wipers, water channels and most people don't realise but they will also be in the crevices at both sides of the boot. They die and roll down the rear windscreen and end up there. I hoover them all up and I'll tell ya, there's a fair amount of them every morning!

Annoying little pricks so they are :mad:

dgt

Some of the cars here are getting destroyed by them! I find the cars parked under the oak/bog trees are worst affected. The 166 is parked under a pine tree and apart from a few needles isn't affected atall. However I always park my 406 under a palm tree and it's fine, no dead insects on it

galwaytt

... you should try riding the 'bike : I have taken to wearing a bandana (open face lid), as otherwise you'd be ingesting them !

Ardennes1944

Ive had to wash my car 3 times in the last week. Theres loads of trees around our house, loads of sap is getting onto my cars paint and then the whitefly are attracted to that and hopping all over it. its so ****in annoying!

Nemeses

Sap, bugs and a windscreen that is now destroyed from insects.. The usual wash, wipe n drive doesn't work anymore..


Sick of washing my windscreen - it can stay bug infested now!


Also, yeah my front bumper and number plate was destroyed with insects.. twas quite funny really.

horse7

My car is covered with this sap/resin from this tree. Do you think the tree has a disease? The wipers are glued to the windscreen every morning.

dashiell hammett

horse7 wrote: »

My car is covered with this sap/resin from this tree. Do you think the tree has a disease? The wipers are glued to the windscreen every morning.

If it helps in your search for a "cure" the tree concerned you have pictured is a Norway Maple (Acer platinoides probably a variety called Crimson King).

They get vast infestations of insects this time of year and the car will get covered in a combination of aphid crap, and an overflow of sap from where the aphids feed.

Tree looks fine.

horse7

So is there any way of reducing the sap,its in big blobs at the moment.

RobertFoster

In the hot weather, insects seem to be attracted to the car when parked. The moment they land however, they seem to keel over and roll down the windscreen. I thought it was static electricity or something.

Matt Simis

RobertFoster wrote: »

In the hot weather, insects seem to be attracted to the car when parked. The moment they land however, they seem to keel over and roll down the windscreen. I thought it was static electricity or something.

Its the heat, around 50c is all thats needed to kill many insects.
A black car in 26c weather has a surface temp of around 63c. Even a grey car is still pumping out a insect killing 56c. Their first reaction is to retract their legs to avoid burning them and "roll" out of the heat. On a car they get trapped and cooked anyhow though.

dashiell hammett

horse7 wrote: »

So is there any way of reducing the sap,its in big blobs at the moment.

Nope nothing you can do and I wouldn't advise any form of aphid spray on a tree as its too large and you'll just end up killing any bees and the beneficial insects that are living off the aphids with little overall change to the situation. Just to check I've googled controlling aphids on maple trees and most of the answers say a tree is to big to be able to spray effectively.

The reason its in big blobs as that type of maple isn't very different from the maple they use to make maple syrup, the sap is tapped off from the trunk. So your wiper blades are being stuck to the windscreen with a type of maple syrup.

Its just the ideal weather for the aphids to breed a bit of cold wet and windy weather and the problem will be reduced.