Urrrgh, arrgh, horrible flies, any idea what they are???

[MrsSpoon]

I live in a Victorian property in a town so am fairly used to insects indoors. We get bluebottles every time you open a window or back door for any period of time but in the last week we have acquired horrible dark brown/almost black flies that are about half an inch long, they are thinish rather than fat and round and have bodies that are in sections similar to an ant. I don't know if there is a connection but we have also just acquired ants in the kitchen (previously only ever had them in the vestibule area, not my personal vestibule obviously ).

Any idea what they are? and What is attracting them?

I won't be around for a while as I am cleaning like a mad woman but would love to read your responses later.

Could they be flying ants (sorry to state the bleedin' obvious)? And lol at your 'personal vestibule' - would that be ants in your pants?

They are flying ants. Also live in a victorian town property. There must be a nest somewhere & at this time of year, they all emerge. I have a nest in the wall of my kitchen somewhere & despite nuking the little gits with ant killer, they still appear.
Last year was horrendous & the kitchen was infested, & I really do mean infested. I had to dyson them all up - it was really disgusting. This year by regularly nuking them from the spots they tend to emerge from it isn't quite as bad. But still completely grim.

shudder< just had a look at flying ants on Google, those are the blighters, didn't think they would be so much bigger than ordinary ants. Feel at bit better at least, ants are not dirty or caused by dirt as far as I am aware.

Thanks. Need to get something to kill the beggers with now.

The flying ones only live for about 1 day.

leave flying ants alone and they'll soon go, last year i boiled them with a kettle and was left with hundreds of bodies, which were hard to get rid of. (and i felt very bad)

they don't live long - seems early for them though they usually appear in august, i suppose it's the heat

Flying ants are the scouts for the rest of the army. Look up the life cycle of the ant. Get rid of em or you will end up with a load of them nesting.

themoon66, I noticed that on the net, they are the males seeking out new nests. Problem with our house is there are so many nooks and crannies for the beggars to get into we are just going to have to wait and see if they have started to nest in the house, I hope they have not.

Get the kids onto 'em. Mine love catching them and throwing them in spiders' webs. The spiders love 'em and it keeps the kids entertained for hours

poppiesinaline how evil, but educational

LOL Poppiesinaline!

Reminds me of my DS1 a couple of weeks ago. He had a School friend home and was excitedly saying to his friend on the way up the stairs to his room "Come into my room and see the spider I've got on my window, it's got a big web and if a fly sticks in it we can watch the spider eat it".