UKC

Since we moved to this house. we have lived alongside ants happily, they seem to live in the garden and the loose pointing.

This evening I have noticed that some of the ants have wings. never seen this before, what causes it? They aren't going to damage are relationship and come inside?

In reply to goldmember:

It's ant shagging day today,my gardens full of the winged ones doing each other.happens every year

In reply to goldmember:

You've never seen flying ants before?

Don't worry as their little wings drop off very quickly forcing them to scuttle about the ground.

Have you noticed that those flying ants are a little on the large size compared to the normal ants?

Be afraid, very afraid.

In reply to goldmember:

Yes, flying ant day here in Hants. Been preparing for ages, busy little things, and today they all took off. It was like Luftflotte 2 over Belgium. My boy and I counted over 1,000 enemy craft.

In reply to felt:

I always remember it as it normally happens on/near my birthday (tomorrow) and as a child remember my party being invaded by a million shagging ants.

In reply to Wsdconst:

Yes, it's the warm weather, typically end of July. They're queens. A quick internet search reveals that it's incorrect to think there's just one "flying ant day" per year and that they're synchronised across the country. But my, the sky was darkened an hour or two ago, and we had to beat an orderly retreat to the kitchen, which was a shame as it was a lovely evening.

In reply to goldmember:

It's just a phase they are going through.......

youtube.com/watch?v=IuhgBvOWb_k&

In reply to goldmember:

youtube.com/watch?v=WuUqrJZ6S2Y&

In reply to goldmember:

Look closely - the flying ones can give lifts to other ants. It's like Avatar, but very very small. Also, red or black not blue. And without the tail thing. So not really much like Avatar.

In reply to goldmember:


What a co-incidence. I found a flying ant in my kitchen earlier too

In reply to felt:


Its a mix of young queens and male ants.

In reply to goldmember:

We had swarming flying Ants at night in our accommodation in Bavaria last week - they were all over us as well, in bed. When we looked at the swarming wall there appeared to be "ground crew" attending to them as well. Then we realised why there was insect spray in the flat.

In reply to goldmember:

we had flying ants come out last night, luckily I was prepared for them and so fired up the compressor fed flame thrower.

muwhahahaha.... non shall survive......

In reply to robal:

You could try making one of these... youtube.com/watch?v=IGJ2jMZ-gaI&

In reply to robal:

Compressor fed flamethrower eh? We need to know more!

It was flying ant day here yesterday too - we had 6 nests erupt in our back garden. The seagulls were scoffing loads of them on the wing about 50 meters up.

In reply to Toerag:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ragCh0MvULU&app=desktop

I already knew what that was going to be before i opened it adrian, I must say it crossed my mind although Im not sure how keen the misses would be with it, I'd have to dig up the patio and surrounding stairs......

In reply to goldmember:

A good way to get rid of an ant's nest without using any nasty chemicals is to put down some dry semolina around the nest, the workers take it back to feed the queen, after she eats it it swells up and kills her.

It works, I got rid of a nest in a compost bin like this.

In reply to Hat Dude:

Cheers HD, not really wanting to kill them, provided they are visible in the house.

In the situation you describe would another lady not take over from the queen?

In reply to goldmember:

I believe in a situation like this the entire society falls apart, various houses and factions rise up and civil war ensues, often a shakey piece is made by the joining of two houses which is eventually crushed by a bee riding queen and her savages from across the narrow sea....

so I'm told, that or I've been drinking too much whilst channel surfing....

In reply to goldmember:

Evidently the existing queen is fed it first but so are any larval queens so they get killed too.

In reply to robal:


Nature, amazing isn't it!?