I am legally blind so had no idea what was sharing the bed with me, and flying uinto my hair. The window was slightly open and the queen must have flown inside, followed by an army of little aviators. Thousands of flying ants were attracted to the security light outside my bedroom window. Last night, kit was hot and humid, with soft rain. RIght now, I'm on vacation in South Africa in the sub-tropical area of the Eastern lowlands, surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Have you seen any flying ants this summer? Leave a comment below!

Plus, check out our cool bug facts, and discover why ladybirds ooze yellow goo from their legs! Flying ants are also called alatesĪlates is the name given to the winged form of many insects.įascinated by insects? Download our FREE insect safari primary resource and go on a bug adventure in your own garden! Want to know more?Īnts are one of the world’s strongest creatures! Head to our amazing ant facts for the lowdown! Look out for their discarded wings on the floor! 10. Queens bite their own wings off!Īfter mating, queens chew off their wings and crawl around looking for a place to dig a new nest. The bigger ones are the queens – they’re up to 15mm in length. Female flying ants are bigger than malesīrave enough to take a closer look? You’ll see that some of the winged ants are much larger than others. In 2018, flying ants invaded the court at Wimbledon, distracting tennis players and making news headlines around the world! 8.

Plus they provide loads of extra food for hungry birds! 7. These flying beasties might be super annoying, but they won’t hurt you. Flying all together all at once also gives them a much better chance of finding mates. The reason the ants appear in such big numbers is that it helps protects them from predators. ‘Flying ant day’ is a mythīecause so many ants appear in the same place at the same time, the phenomenon is often known as ‘ flying ant day’ – but it’s really more of a short flying ant season. Depending on weather, the winged insects may appear in different parts of the country any time between June and September. Flying ants only swarm during hot summer weatherįor a swarm of ants to occur, conditions must be just right – they’re usually triggered by hot and humid weather in July or August. The ants take to the skies so that queens can mate with males from different colonies, and set up new nests of their own. But during summer, winged males and new queens of the same species take flight! 2. The ants we’re most used to seeing are female black garden ants, marching around collecting food. Flying ants are just normal ants – with wings! Have you been caught up in a swarm of flying ants this summer? And is there really a special ‘flying ant day’? Read on to discover more… 1.

We are the ants