[Review] McKee’s 37 Road Kill Bug Remover

I’ve always been a fan of Stoner’s Tarminator for removing stubborn bugs, sap, and tar spots on my vehicles. It just works and you can find it anywhere. Having put so much time into making my paint scratch free I never wanted to install scratches trying rub or scuff them out.

Curious if there was anything better out, I contacted Mckee’s 37 to get a bottle of their Road Kill Bug Remover.

First Impressions

I like that it arrived with a safety seal and cap and sprayer attachment. There was no mess in the shipping package and I can use the cap to store it long term in my tool box.

I was also happy to discover it didn’t smell offensive. A lot of cleaning products work great but smell terrible.

I poured a little out and it had a thin water like consistency unlike Tarminator which has more of an oil slick consistency to it.

I was pretty excited to try it out.

Stoner’s Tarminator vs McKee’s 37 Road Kill Bug Remover

If you’ve ever driven through the Midwest country at night you’re familiar with how bad the bugs are. After a 200 mile road trip the front of my car was a murder scene. I figured this would be a good test of the McKee’s 37 Road Kill against Stoner’s Tarminator.

The Setup

My bumper is currently coated in Collinite 845 because it was painted only a couple months ago. The bumper was just washed before the road trip and the bugs sat on the car overnight.

The Results

Here you can see the bugs before spraying with Road Kill:

Here you can see the results after spraying the bugs down, letting the product dwell for a minute, and then very gently wiping away with a microfiber bug sponge:

Here you can see the bugs before spraying with Tarminator:

Here you can see the results after spraying the bugs down, letting the Tarminator dwell for a minute, and then very gently wiping away with a microfiber bug sponge:

As you can see, the results are very similar. I didn’t scrub at all, just wiped. The Tarminator side actually ended up with a very tiny bit more bug residue after wiping but it was hard to capture on camera.

The Good

The cleaner starts dissolving bugs on contact. Many cleaners that I’ve used don’t do anything other than soften the bug guts. This stuff litterally started melting it away as you can see in the before and after of a large but splat on my mirror below.

I also really liked the feeling of the McKee’s 37 Road Kill bug remover when I was wiping it off. It was much more slick than the Tarminator so I didn’t feel like I was doing any damage at all to my paint. It was also easier to control application being that it is a spray and not an aerosol mist like Tarminator.

When I switched to washing the Road Kill washed off easier as well. Tarminator has somewhat of an oily consistency to it and can be a little more difficult to remove.

Another thing I noticed was that the water beading on McKee’s 37 side remained largely unchanged. The water beading after using Stoners was noticeably reduced leading me to believe it took a lot of my wax with it.

The Bad

Honestly, I couldn’t find fault with the product. It smelled OK, applied good, dissolved bug guts well, and removed good. It’s even a better bargain whereas the Tarminator is $11 with only 10oz and a lot of that is propellant for the aerosol.

Verdict

I really liked this product. When sprayed onto bugs it started working immediately to dissolve them. When it came time to wipe it off it was very slick and required no effort to wash off. It smells ok. It’s affordable at around $1 per ounce. None of the product is wasted in over spray like an aerosol.

Would I buy it again when this bottle runs out? I would.

Would I recommend it over over-the-counter products to the average person? Ehh, that’s tougher. I think it’s a more pleasant product to use and the results speak for themselves. However, it’s not an order of magnitude better. If you’re already standing in a box store staring at a can of Stoner’s, the convenience of grabbing that can outweighs any benefits the McKee’s brings to the table.