Flying Ants Day - You Had Yours?

[barry1010]

It's a myth that all the winged ants in the country fly on the same day, but ants in the same area tend to.  It is very weather dependent. 

A lot of ants flew on the 17th July in areas of Nottingham but I've escaped so far.  

One year my garden was thick with them, horrible things, but the birds loved them.

Have you seen them this year?  

 

[Tilly2]

Yes. On the 17th July two nests in my garden emptied at around 4.00pm. We had to go inside and close all the doors and windows.

[Rosetta]

We get them from time to time but not so far this year.  I have found the most successful way of getting rid of them was to suck them up using the cylinder vacuum cleaner

[Tilly2]

Why don't you just let them fly away, Rosetta? Why kill them?

[barry1010]

I wouldn't want them nesting in my house

[Tilly2]

They are outdoor ants.

[bhg481]

Back in the 70s we had a white car. The summer had been a particularly dry one and Stocks reservoir was well down. The reservoir had flooded a village (Stocks) when it was created and the water level had got so low that you could see many of the buildings, so we went to have a look at it. We left the car and, when we got back to it, it was covered in flying ants; none of the other cars (not white) had any ants on.

[Tilly2]

Can anyone remeber which year it was that there were swarms of ladybirds everywhere?

[Rosetta]

These were indoors Tilly😥

[Tilly2]

Aww!

[barry1010]

They nested in my loft one year, I wasn't happy.  

[Rosetta]

Mine were in the kitchen, I was also not a happy bunny

[Tilly2]

Thankfully, mine are in the garden. I know that there are another nests two which are still there. I've been keeping an eye on them.

Barry, what did the nest in the loft look like?

[Togo]

//Can anyone remeber which year it was that there were swarms of ladybirds everywhere?//

Yep   ...  that was year dot. 

[Tilly2]

Spot on, Togo!

[mjwman]

Ladybirds were in the 60s about 1965 I think. We were in Norfolk at the time.

Our flying ants, both red and black emerged about 5pm on 28th July.

[Tilly2]

🐞

[Tilly2]

I was thinking sometime in the eighties, mjwman.

We were in Norfolk as well!

 

[Arksided]

I did actually think that ladybirds were flying beetles... but hey. i'm always learning

[Tilly2]

Are they not?

[Arksided]

I dunno... I don't think they're flying ants though