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It's Flying Ants Day

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    It's Flying Ants Day

    Well, it is up in Cov anyhoo. Every year, if you're lucky enough to have an ant colony nearby there's always ONE DAY where you see the winged ones emerge & take flight, whilst the wingless ones scuttle en masse around looking busy (presumably as a prelude to their death) and it always seems to happen in one day of the year, like there's some species-wide hivemindedness going on. Am I imagining this? Strolling my neighbourhood this afternoon it was clear that the amount of the fuckers in people's hair, flying in your face, getting inside cars was way too many just to be accounted for by the swarm coming out the brickwork down my front path. So what's the deal? Is there one day where every antnest in the country decides it's time to fly off? Is this a city-wide or a nationwide phenom - do different bits of the country have different flying-ant days? And does the extremely damp summer we're having portend some kind of massive spider/cranefly population explosion this autumn? Any entomological guidance much appreciated. I can't stand insects. At the moment I'm huddled indoors with all the windows shut trying to make my skin stop crawling.

    #2
    It's Flying Ants Day

    Heh. I was going to post the same thing this morning, but forgot. The ant colony by my bus stop was sprouting many winged ants today. One of them seemed to have a deformed wing and was wandering around forlornly while the other were all taking off to fulfil their destiny.

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      #3
      It's Flying Ants Day

      Ant Day in Barnsley too.

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        #4
        It's Flying Ants Day

        Same down here in Surrey/Hampshire. It only happened this afternoon, once it got warm and really humid.

        GY, that one you saw with a deformed wing - are you sure it wasn't in the process of shedding it? It always makes me wonder why they bother having wings at all, if they're only going to fly about 50yds with them, then land and shed them!

        Neil - I don't think there is one single day, as I've encountered 'ant wedding days' in different areas at different times in the same year. I think it's entirely down to the local weather, i.e. warm, still-ish and humid.

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          #5
          It's Flying Ants Day

          Yeah, I think you had your Ant Wedding day in London a few weeks ago. But I'm guessing it still has to be 'coordinated' over a wide geographical area to make mating/breeding successful - which begs the question how do they know what the weather's gonna be like? It was pissing it down in Cov this morning.

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            #6
            It's Flying Ants Day

            A very half-hearted one in Harrow. They seemed as interested as that utterly fucking useless team from Moscow.

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              #7
              It's Flying Ants Day

              There are serious swarms down in Bournemouth. But this is the second time this year.

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                #8
                It's Flying Ants Day

                Neil Kulkarni wrote:
                Yeah, I think you had your Ant Wedding day in London a few weeks ago. But I'm guessing it still has to be 'coordinated' over a wide geographical area to make mating/breeding successful - which begs the question how do they know what the weather's gonna be like? It was pissing it down in Cov this morning.
                I'm not sure how wide an area one colony can spread across for mating purposes. I wouldn't think it was that large.

                As for the weather thing, that's a good question. I would surmise that it's to do with atmospheric pressure. I imagine they've got a built-in natural 'barometer' and they can detect the rising pressure. They don't get it right every time, though - I've seen some 'wedding days' devastated by a sudden summer shower/storm.

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                  #9
                  It's Flying Ants Day

                  Day Of The Giant Ants down here in B&H as well. First properly hot day for weeks, so I guess they snatch the opportunity when it comes...

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                    #10
                    It's Flying Ants Day

                    They really mess up your windscreen. Right now, there's just a few winged ones crawling around amidst the wingless ones down my path - are they unwilling teenage stay-at-homes or visiting philanderers being checked before gaining access to the queen? There's also one wierd, red/orange fucker out'n'about - who's s/he?

                    I'm actually feeling rather smug at my zen forbearance of the ol' invertebrate-deathcull this day normally kicks off. All about twitching curtains y'see - back as a nipper at my mums her nest was in the back garden so I'd have real shameless sadistic relish sending the whole lot to a hot speedy death. At my house the nest is out the front and I'm not sure I want my neighbours seeing just how gleeful I can get when I've got a boiling kettle in my hand and that glint in my eye. That and the fact I now have to love and protect all living creatures I encounter cos the kids are usually watching and I don't want them turning into serial killers.

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                      #11
                      It's Flying Ants Day

                      Flying Ants Day in Bath as well.

                      No bloody balmy summer's day though

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                        #12
                        It's Flying Ants Day

                        Red Hot Flying Ant Day chat

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                          #13
                          It's Flying Ants Day

                          Why do they bother? Croydon has them as well.

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                            #14
                            It's Flying Ants Day

                            All questions answered by that link BofE, cheers. Like that all the winged ones are female duh god I'm a dipshit. My wife snorted 'Of course they are you silly sod' as I related her this revelation.

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                              #15
                              It's Flying Ants Day

                              Down in the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames it was ant day the week before last. And it set me a-wond'rin': Whatever happened to red ants? Have they gone the way of 7-spot ladybirds? When I was a kid in East Anglia the ratio of red:black ants' nests was about 4:1 in favour of black. Has there been a general settling of formic scores?

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                                #16
                                It's Flying Ants Day

                                Purves Grundy wrote:
                                Down in the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames it was ant day the week before last. And it set me a-wond'rin': Whatever happened to red ants? Have they gone the way of 7-spot ladybirds? When I was a kid in East Anglia the ratio of red:black ants' nests was about 4:1 in favour of black. Has there been a general settling of formic scores?
                                Good point. In my childhood I thought the red ones were taking over, as they were so much more aggressive. We had colonies of each in our back garden and if they ever chanced across each other there would be 'battles' between the rival nests. The reds invariably seemed to win, despite being smaller. They were just more vicious.

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                                  #17
                                  It's Flying Ants Day

                                  Yep, same here in Southampton. They were starting to swarm outside our house at about 9am.

                                  Sadly, my first reaction was also "where's the kettle" but I restrained myself. I'm normally fairly tolerant of other creatures (humans, not so much).

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                                    #18
                                    It's Flying Ants Day

                                    A few years ago we had an ant farm. We populated it with some ants from just outside the back door. They seemed to be doing well. A few days later my daughter decided to introduce a few ants from further down the garden. Chaos ensued, ants were fighting all over the farm. It was like a wild west film when fighting breaks out in a saloon, there were about 20 separate little fights going on until there were only about 3 or 4 ants left alive.

                                    Such is life.

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                                      #19
                                      It's Flying Ants Day

                                      What are you people talking about????

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                                        #20
                                        It's Flying Ants Day

                                        Lodzubelieveit wrote:
                                        What are you people talking about????
                                        (Shhh - no-one tell Lodz we're helping the ants take over!)

                                        -



                                        -

                                        "I, for one..."

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                                          #21
                                          It's Flying Ants Day

                                          Scientists say "It's a myth". And then go to show that it sort of isn't really...

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                                            #22
                                            It's Flying Ants Day

                                            The scientists do not say "It's a myth". That is the BBC's contraction, which is actually not a contraction but a misrepresentation.
                                            What he actually says is "Although flying ant day across the country is a bit of a myth, actually there's a fairly tight window pretty much nationally when they're coming out". Which is far more equivocal than the headline makes it sound.

                                            Typcial press problem of needing an event to have one single, simple explanation. They really cope badly with anything a little complex.

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                                              #23
                                              It's Flying Ants Day

                                              Screw flying ants, I am ready for these guys coming back.

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                                                #24
                                                It's Flying Ants Day

                                                The little bastards are swarming on the Costa del Scouse this evening, leading to a spectacular flock of hundreds of gulls/terns overhead, going crazy to eat as many as possible.

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                                                  #25
                                                  It's Flying Ants Day

                                                  This year, it was today.

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