We have a huge swarm of flying ants. Is it your flying ants day today and what do you do about yours?

[FlyingAunts]

We've lived in this house for decades and we've never noticed any ants or flying ants here before. Today we've got a huge swarm of flying ants in the garden. They are crawling all over a stone wall, down onto the lawn and flying thick in the air. The garden is unusable, especially with the DC. We are in the UK and rural. We're a very nature-friendly family usually but these are awful and they are everywhere!

They are meant to fly on the same day, depending on the weather and whether urban or rural. I find this rather spooky!

Have you got flying ants today and what, if anything, have you done about the beasties?

Here's some information:

Flying ant day: when winged ants take their nuptial flight | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)

YES! Just found a huge swarm in our front garden- we are Durham

Ours was last week. It only lasts a day, the kids can learn about the phenomenon and the get the garden back tomorrow!

I just can't understand why people would kill them. 🙄
90%of UK ants are black ants that can't bite or sting and red ants are more common in rural areas where they are less of a nuisance anyway. Just leave them alone.
We don't deserve this planet.

Yes, unlucky for some!

Yes, same here! I'm in the North East!

Our blackbirds come to be hand fed at least twice a day when we're around, especially when they have chicks and fledglings, but I haven't seen a single blackbird today when we need them for the flying ants. Interesting to hear your blackbirds eat so many - and infuriating!

I'm in Bucks and we had them a couple of weeks ago. I am sat on the patio and haven't seen one yet. Hopefully they all did their thing last time.

We have loads today. In Cornwall.

My 10 year old DS is obsessed with ants. He hasn’t shut up about them all day.

Teen DD has been at the end of her tether, as we all went for a walk but DS constantly stopped to look at ants and to talk about them in detail.

A high point was when he stopped to point out a queen “who is currently being murdered by workers because she walked too close to another’s nest” 🙈

DD - “OMG, make him STOP”.

According to him, the ants lose their wings when they mate (which happens in mid air) and then “all the men fall to the ground and die”. 😂

Then the pregnant queens run off to make nests, sometimes being murdered in the process.

There is a lot going on out there.

They’re out in force today in Hampshire!

Yes!! Hampshire also

We had them back when it was hot in June - today is very late, but I guess it depends on what the weather has been like where you are.

I haven't seen any but they must be due as we've had dragonflies visit in the late afternoon. We're in a city and they seem to make a special trip every year when the ants are due.

Zone 3 SW London, a couple of hours ago there were loads of flying ants. I think it's the third time this year. For some reason I thought it was an annual event!

Yep got them here in Sheffield!

Just had to have a shower and wash my hair as they were all over me - even down my dress- I chucked them out but they left their wings behind. Also saw many being attacked by ordinary ants and all this at Waitrose in Cornwall!

Yes in south Manchester too. I saw loads of regular ants all over the patio and then spotted loads of flying ones too.
Seems to have settled down a bit now.

I'm in West Yorkshire and they were here today, bloody things.
Doesn't seem as bad as last year when there was a sea of them. Birds aren't doing much to catch them :(
I went out to feed the fish earlier and the ants kept landing on me.

Got them here near Blackpool

Loads here in Oxford

Yes we did!!! NW England.

It's really late in the year for it. There was a flying ants day earlier in the year on 27th July and that was considered late.

Apparently they are a good indication of stable good weather for a day or two. It explains why it's so late this year because we've had so much unsettled rainy weather this year. Certainly it's been thoroughly miserable since around the 27th. I think we've had about half a day of reasonable weather at a time since then.

Really interesting to see it's be a national thing today though. I thought it would be much more localised.

‘A high point was when he stopped to point out a queen “who is currently being murdered by workers because she walked too close to another’s nest” 🙈’

I love it! A junior Attenborough in the making. If his sister doesn’t throttle him first.

I’ve only seen the blackbirds doing it in the last year or so. Maybe we just have odd blackbirds. Mostly I see them hopping around collecting worms in the evenings

Yes they were swarming in my garden earlier today, NW. It's very late this year but about the only warm day we've had in weeks so I kind of expected it. I seem to remember it's usually late June in previous years. Had them inside one year which was horrendous so I get the front treated every Easter now, but I leave them to it in the back garden.

Most I've ever seen today it was crazy.

There are quite a few around today, but our ‘swarm’ day was a few weeks ago (London suburb). I’d never seen such a thing! The whole area was covered by a cloud of the things. It wasn’t pleasant.