Has anyone else seen swarms of small flying ants today?

[JennyShaw]

I've seen the bigger black ants flying around in previous summers, but today I witnessed quite small flying ants. I don't think it's anything weird going on but I've never seen them before.

I was at the top of a hill and there was a swarm of insects. I thought they were flies until some of them landed on me and I could see they were ants. When I looked into the distance I could see a dark cloud which I assumed must be another swarm of these ants.

I asked Grok about it and got this reply: "The ones you saw sound much more like red ants in the genus Myrmica — most likely the common red ant (Myrmica rubra) or the closely related Myrmica ruginodis (which is more frequent further north, including Northumberland)".

I've seen zero flying ants all summer, which i think is quite unusual given how hot it's been??

I haven't seen any of the usual black ants this year. It's usually July when they come out, isn't it?

I saw flying ants yesterday, which did look smaller than the 'standard' black ants. They were definitely black ants though, not red.

There were so many that the seagulls got all excited and took to the air en masse to catch them. I suspect it's a little known fact that seagulls love flying ants, or perhaps it's just me who didn't know that until recently!

I didn't know that. I expect the swallows and swifts will enjoy them.

Yes, they were all emerging from under our lawn this evening, swarms of them.