It’s midge season in Ohio, and Cedar Point visitors are finding out the hard way what happens when the roller coaster sends you into a swarm of insects at 120 mph.
And it isn’t pretty.
Reddit user Jakewist4 recently became a human windshield while riding in the front row of Top Thrill 2. In a video shared to the Cedar Point subreddit by the user, two people show their faces, hands, arms and clothes covered in insects following their ride.
“I literally thought something might have broke because I just got slammed in my whole body by bugs,” the Reddit user writes.
Midges swarming around Lake Erie
Midges, a tiny species of fly, spend most of their lives underwater, the Canton Repository reports, emerging as adults with the water temperature reaches 60 degrees.
And then they swarm, covering buildings and forming clouds in the sky that are visible on weather radar.
The insects resemble mosquitos, but the midges that emerge from Lake Erie don’t bite.
While adult midges only live a few days to a few weeks, the season lasts through September and peaks in the summer when the weather is hot and humid.
Top Thrill 2 at Cedar Point sends riders into swarms of midges
With Cedar Point being on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Erie, the theme park is in a prime location for midges to swarm.
And commenters on the Reddit post say it’s a common problem for all the roller coasters.
“This reminds me of when I rode Millennium Force front seat at night (June/July) many years ago and was completely covered by gnats and bugs and the end of the ride. Never again,” writes one commenter.
As for Jakewist4, the user writes that they plan to stick to the back row for now.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Human windshield: Cedar Point roller coaster slams riders into midge swarm. See the video
Reporting by Chad Murphy, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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