Sun 23 Jul 2006
Can’t remember having seen this for a couple of years but for one day a year (maybe for two consecutive days) it would seem that London was carpeted with flying ants in every park and on every pavement - especially on the pavements.
Okay I admit that does look more like a fly than a flying ant but you try getting a good photograph of these things!
This was in my garden a couple of minutes ago along with many of his or her friends. Does anyone know what these things actually are and why they appear only once a year then disappear?
Dom - you seem to be an expert on critters although I am not sure that this qualifies!
July 24th, 2006 at 10:24 am
They are reproducing ants. You will see a few large ones, which are the queens, and a lot of smaller males. The queen flies off and the males chase her; when they catch her they mate and her wings drop off and she founds a new colony. You’ll notice that the flying part ensures that the new colony is a good distance from the old one, and presumably the fact that all the colonies do it at the same time once a year helps to prevent inbreeding (I made this bit up so it might not be true).
http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Pests/flyant.htm
July 24th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
More interesting wingy ant facts:
“The females, once inseminated, will fall to earth, tear off their wings and start a new nest. The sperm they have garnered on their nuptial flight will suffice to fertilise all the eggs they will ever lay, although queen ants have been known to live as long as 15 years. The male ants, meanwhile, will simply fly on in search of other females and find instead an early death. The nuptial flight is such a transcendent moment that even when I’ve had clouds of sated ants falling into the dishes during midsummer dinner parties on the terrace, I’ve felt more like genuflecting in awe at the incarnation of airborne orgasm than killing them at the very moment.”
Gardening Telegraph, Country diary: Winged antagonists, 9 August 2003
July 25th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
i’m so glad you mentioned this, i had a ton of these things fly through my window over the weekend, i was beginning to think my flat was infested…
August 9th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Thanks for this info, I was reading up on them, and heard they were only found in England, but I live in Glasgow/Scotland, and all of a sudden they’ve just appeared. And personally, I didn’t think they were flying ants, I thought they were some sort of evolution of Ants, they were like nothing I’ve seen before. I’ve been seeing them for 2 days now, and from what I’ve heard they only hang around for 2 days, so hopefully they’ll be gone by tomorrow. They can be rather harsh, they’ve bitten a lot of people I know, there just a nusence.
August 10th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Gavin - your comment reminded me of this post (which was from last year) and I read the comments again which nicely sum up what is going on - something I did not know before, obviously. Coincidentally, I am also reading The Selfish Gene which gives a name to this type of insect, Hymenoptera, which I believe includes all colony forming insects except termites.
This year in London there has been no massive Flying Ant Day - I haveonly spotted one or two fairly forlorn and lonely specimens. Something to do with the rain no doubt.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Im Confused.. why are these thing here in the first place? When i was comming home from school today they would just go everywere and it realy iretated me… and plus when i dodge them i nearly got fun over. they are realy getting me angry now!
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Well today seem like a flying ant day - they are everywhere in London!
August 18th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Hymenoptera is actually one of the larger orders of insects, consisting of sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. I too today witnessed the one day event of the mating flying ants along a 20 minute stretch of the 401 around oshawa, ontario, canada.