AIBU to wish flying ants would fuck off

[MummyShortLeggs]

I’ve just gone outside to sit on my patio with a glass of wine and there are flying ants crawling about all over the place. They’re not even flying despite having wings. Every year flying ant day seems to get earlier and more populated.
So Aibu to wish they would fuck off and never darken my patio again?

Insects are important to the eco system and provide valuable food for birds and other insects. The insect population has massively declined over the years, worryingly so. Flying ants might not be aesthetically pleasing, but they're very much needed.

I don’t mind looking at them, it’s all the brick dust we get in the house earlier in the year when they burrow through looking for food. I’m surprised the house is still standing. I can’t be the only one with this irrational hatred.

Flying ants give me the heebie jeebies! We haven't had flying ant day here yet... So I suppose I have that to look forward to... 🙁

That's about six weeks early?!

I know, I really wasn’t expecting it. It is more like late winter than late spring and they normally fly in summer. WTF is going on?

Is it flying ant day?! I haven't seen any here yet.

I used to live by the coast and always knew when it was flying ant day as the herring gulls would go absolutely crazy, making twice as much noise as usual and flying in small circles after the ants.

(Ah, I know they are not popular but I miss gulls!)

I think YABU really... the reason they have grown wings and emerged is precisely so that they can fuck off!

Flying ant day (not really a single day at all) is determined by temperatures and humidity, triggering the changes that lead up to them developing wings and then again to trigger them to emerge and fly.

It does not get earlier and earlier each year, it varies year on year, area by area, but is typically between June and September. In fact ants fly on around 96% of days between June and Sept in the UK, you just don't spot it because you're (presumably) not omni-present.

If you want rid of them, treat the area properly and probably look at removing environmental factors that make the problem area somewhere they want to build (flags on a sand base is a great ant habitat!)