What rained on me?

littlebug

This happened a few days ago on the motorway just west of Athlone. There has just been a rain shower but it had stopped so the wipers were off and then there was a few seconds of more "rain" but it sounded a bit heavier and the drops were orange... like rusty orange coloured rain. A few seconds and that was that. It didn't drip down the windscreen just stuck there. I had no water in the reservoir thing so couldn't clean it off. Now after driving through a few more showers most of the bits within the wiper range has come of and if not it seems to come off reasonably easily with a fingernail scrape. There was nothing in front of me that could have splashed from and no tall buildings or trees (that I noticed). Nor had I just driven under a bridge. It seemed to come from above.

Maybe there's a simple explanation. Just curious

irish1967

Maybe a seagull on Drambuie ?

littlebug

irish1967 wrote: »

Maybe a seagull on Drambuie ?

:D you know it struck me after I posted this that it could be something bird related or certainly something I shouldn't be scraping off with my finger nail.

Here's a photo. These little orange specks were all over my windscreen and bonnet. The best I can think of is that there "must" have been trees nearby and it's sap or something...

gaz wac

you must have gone through a swarm of flies or somthing like that....they are mashed bodies !!

littlebug

gaz wac wrote: »

you must have gone through a swarm of flies or somthing like that....they are mashed bodies !!

:eek::eek: that hadn't even cross my mind!! I'll have a look for further evidence of this and yes.... I'll get a car wash

gaz wac

Just saw your user name

Hells Belle

hi Littlebug, I'm going with the flies too, I flicked a fly away from my arm last night and it left a lovely orange streak across it, exactly like your picture. It wasnt a normal fly it was one of those ones that look like beetles that are everywhere. Theres threads about them on Nature & Birdwatching and I think I saw one of AH too.
HB

WolfeIRE

a boeing jet could have emptied the contents of its loo over you

lord lucan

Looks like the visor on my helmet after a spin down the M50. Particularly lately,seems to be a lot more winged insects than normal about!

highdef

I got the exact same thing a few days ago. It wouldn't wash off for days either and it happened just a shower was ending. This was near Dunboyne. I didn't see any flies or bugs and I was only travelling at about 50/60 kmh so I'd surprised that the bugs would be so squashed and bet into the screen. Although someone mentioned some sort of beetle so maybe I hit a swarm of flying beetles!!! Weird though

Victor Meldrew

My good lady took my car west the other weekend, and it returned looking like opening beach scenes from "Saving private Ryan", except with bugs. Her round trip was 500km. think Little bugs pic, but concentrated X 100.

I did a 800km round trip two weeks before to cork and accumulated about a third of the casualties on the car. Same car, similar weather,

What gives?

Not

Tis nothing unusual for a summers day jaunt down the Naas Road, my windscreen usually gets covered with them.

Victor your good lady must have hit a particularly concentrated swarm of them. Hate that cause when that happens they dont come off with the wipers so you need to call on garage with water and go at them with a squeege and some elbow grease to be able to restore reasonably unblemished forward vision. That's why the squeege replaces the ice scraper in the car during the summer.

A fine summers day towards late afternoon or evening is the worst time for them and the faster you go the faster your vision goes. Most of them make whiteish splats but some do splat blood on the windscreen:eek:

Victor Meldrew

Not wrote: »

they dont come off with the wipers so you need to call on garage with water and go at them with a squeege and some elbow grease to be able to restore reasonably unblemished forward vision. That's why the squeege replaces the ice scraper in the car during the summer

I had just done a beautiful job on the car before-hand too. It was gleaming.

sunbabe08

you smushed a swarm of flies. there coming up orange on the windows of my parents car.

littlebug

gaz wac wrote: »

Just saw your user name

Indeed You'd think I'd recognise the remains of my own kind

It is indeed squished bugs. I was so taken up with the orange windscreen splodges that I failed to notice the intact or semi intact corpses of hundreds of the little-bugs further down on the bumper/ number plate. Quite the massacre I carried out :eek:
Problem solved and not a weather issue at all!

Min

I'm sick of those flies wearing their fake sun tan, they left their taint on my windshield too!!!

GSF

Not wrote: »

Tis nothing unusual for a summers day jaunt down the Naas Road, my windscreen usually gets covered with them.

Victor your good lady must have hit a particularly concentrated swarm of them. Hate that cause when that happens they dont come off with the wipers so you need to call on garage with water and go at them with a squeege and some elbow grease to be able to restore reasonably unblemished forward vision. That's why the squeege replaces the ice scraper in the car during the summer.

A fine summers day towards late afternoon or evening is the worst time for them and the faster you go the faster your vision goes. Most of them make whiteish splats but some do splat blood on the windscreen:eek:

Somebody should really think about a mobile window cleaning service. At traffic lights maybe? I can see that being a big success!