Everyone knows that on one day every year - usually the day after a muggy spell - the flying ants emerge to mate and swish around and get tangled in my hair.
(This last aspect is, I expect, a side-benefit of their outing, and not a core motivator for them.)
In these pages I have previously hypothesised that the main point of keeping a blog is to be able to track the emergence of these little feckers, and therefore, y’know, make some spurious claims about climate change based on the data.
Building on this theory, and on data collected in previous years, please excuse me for coming over all Bill Oddie Springwatch on you, but this is what the flying ant day pattern of occurrence looks like. I have tried to add in supplementary data based on other people’s blog posts or flickr pics or twitters about ants - if you know of another (weblinkable) data point, tell me in the comments:
| Year | FAD London SW14 | FAD elsewhere |
| 2000 | 21 July | |
| 2001 | 23 July | |
| 2002 | 26 July | |
| 2003 | 27 July | |
| 2004 | 22 July | 6 July (West London) 17 July (West London, Hackney, Manor Park, Roy Bridge) 27 July (Didcot) |
| 2005 | 29 July | 12 July (West London) 2 August (Mill Hill) |
| 2006 | 12 July | 12 July (Enfield) Teddington) 17 July (West Sussex, West London) 26 July ILondon SE14) |
| 2007 | 19 July | 8 July Nottingham 13 July (West Sussex) 14 July (East Sussex) 15 July (Portsmouth, Harrow, East London, West London, West Berkshire, Oxford, Verwood, Dorset, Kent, Crawley, Reading) 16 July (Romford, Dublin) 17 July (Heysham, Lancashire) 19 July (Derby, Derby, Walsall, Bermondsey, Marlborough) |
If I had any energy, I’d figure out a way to plot this data on a map. Figured it out! Google MyMaps to the rescue!
If you have had a flying ant frenzy this year or any year, tell me WHEN and WHERE (first bit of postcode, if possible) and I’ll update the list above map.
Meg is leaving hints that she is unwell… I wish you a full and prompt recovery. The picture of a hand is nice, but when the hospital tag says “Pickard”, that becomes worrying.
Marlborough, Wilts today! VILE
Hope you are feeling better now :)
Bermondsey, 19th July.
Attacked by flying ants?!
Hi Meg - found your flying ant project via Things.
I was in Walsall yesterday (19th) and so were the flying ants. Lots and lots of them.
14 July, East Sussex - the cars were covered in them and animals and small children sought safety under the bed. Seems that they moved the 10 miles or so eastwards from Steve (Oclipa) over a period of 24 hours.
Did you know that flying ants only emerge when their colonies are over-populated? That’s why the wings occur.
Must. Get. Life.
I’d hoped to meet you at the Moo party yesterday but heard you are not well :-( hope you feel better.
I wonder what the temperature was at the time. GW pattern, or not?
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/01/09/060109fa_fact_kolbert
The ants flew in Stafford on Thursday 19th July 2007.
Does anyone know why/how they choose the same time?
8th July in Greenwich! http://twitter.com/minor9th/statuses/140120892
Farwell Texas- evening of July 23rd we received our yearly swarm of flying ants. It looks like something out of a very scarrrrry movie.
Sunday 22nd July - Montreal - my back garden.
July 25, 2007
Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, Canada
Every year around this time we get swarms of flying ants in our house. Usually in the living room crawling on the curtains hanging in the big front window and hundreds on the floor…they seem to be trying to make their way to the door.
My question is…WHY MY HOUSE EVERY YEAR?????
Hi Meg,
Just surfing for anything on flying ants. Came across your site. It is 4:15 pm in Kingman, Arizona on this 26th day of July. And we are witnessing our annual flying ant swarm. They are all falling to the ground from our tall pine tree on the side of our home. Strange as it may seem, they appear to be hatching right out of each pine cone.
This occurrence happens very shortly after a period of rain which is quite rare in the desert. We had a very dry spring and so we thought that maybe the little buggers would take the year off!
Well…. a late July monsoon rain showed us otherwise.
Well, just thought I’d add my personal experience to your site. Now I need to search the web a little for possible ways to end this tree top nuisance!
RCamara
The first day with no rain in something like 65 days, and the sky is thick with flying ants! July 30, Dublin, Ireland. I hope it’s just for the one day, but when I lived in Crouch End, London, we had to put up with them for weeks at a time, infesting our kitchen. I still shudder.
just as liz said… the rain has been non stop for ages, and the first beautiful day has been spoiled by the flying ants, they are everywhere… in the house, under the decking in the back garden… its making my skin crawl just thinking of the day i have had. does anyone know what can be done>”"” im thinking of getting pest control in.
July 31st, London SE21.
July 31st, Yeovil, BA22
Today, 1st August - Truro, Cornwall. TR1
July 31st - Carterton, Oxfordshire.
on july 8th i walked outside my mobile home and saw a huge swarm of flying ants around a walnut tree in my back yard. i had never seen anything like it. the next day i went back out there and they were gone, and i have not seen them since.
on july 8th i saw a swarm of flying ants around a walnut tree in chesterfield, indiana, usa. the next day the flying ants were gone.
saw lots of ants in my front garden id never seen ants with wings watched them for aa while then lots of them just started flying away ………really strange thing to see first time in my life im 43 all gone today put down actellic dust dont know if its that or they have just gone..driffield yo25 6rw
July 23rd Edinburgh (EH1), less than normal
Flying ants emerged today, August 7, in Grand Rapids, Michigan (postal code 49546). We had our first real rain this morning after a long drought. They appear to be coming out of the ground, and I also see some very tiny wingless red ant-like things. Sure hope these are flying ants like I think, and not termites.
The flying ants are making us crazy!!! We’re in Thayne, Wyoming and it’s been absolutely ridiculous today. They’re all over the carpet, furniture, bed, even in the toilet…crawling around the outside of the house and tons in the grass…We’ve been vacuuming them up, but they’re very hard to kill by hand. Will they just die on their own soon? Sounds like it from everyone else’s comments. Man, I hope so. Any advice on how to get rid of these PESTS??? I’m very grateful for this site. By the way, we went with nearly no rain for all of June and half of July, then got a bunch of thunderstorms, but today was a dry sunny day (about 80 degrees F). Consistent little buggers, aren’t they?
Eh22 outside Edinburgh, Kitchen taken over today by ants with and without wings. Wouldn’t have minded to much but a pest that’s meant to be so strong and clever and work well together no bloody one of the thought to either put on the kettle or wash the dishes in the sink. Lazy Gits
Wwll its aug 14 2007, went outside and here they are thosands of flying ants, they were all over the outside of the house well 2hours later there gone….this happens every yeararound this time… thanks for the web site Barbie
August 16th 2007 there were hundreds of flying ants in my yard today. Lethbridge Alberta.
August 21, 2007 Michigan, near AnnArbor
The buggers are everywhere following a full day of rain…too bad they didn’t drown.
Tried to go waterskiing on my lake, in White Lake, MI, and my girlfriend got pelted by a swarm. They were everywhere and covered the entire lake surface like a blanket. She gave up after taking one in the eye.
they are everywhere on the ground and flying around just outside shepherd, mi
Appleton Wisconsin and Wautoma Wisconsin (45 miles away) Today was flying ant day. My best friend since grade school (I’m 40) have been celebrating “Flying Ant Day” since we were kids. We call each other up to report on the swarm. So this year I “googled” flying ant day - and am amazed someone stole our name!!! We’ve been calling it “Flying Ant Day” for 35 years!!!
Lots of ants emerging today. Drought conditions here and had a bit of rain the last two days. 8/22/07. Menominee in the U.P. of Michigan. Very humid today. Noticed them about 9:30 a.m. and they seem to have emptied out of the ground about 11:30 a.m. They seemed to all fly East which might or might not be related to the number of trees here plus the driveway clearing is East from where they emerged. Some did not have wings but were crawling among the others gathered at the holes. These ants were tan colored and small. The holes were roughly 1/2″ in diameter. The flying ants had tan colored abdomens with black heads for the most part.
Aug. 24 was flying ant day in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I must say that I had never heard of this before until I saw it for the first time at the age of 50!
I’ve just discovered flying ants day today!
It’s August 28 and I see tons of dead flying ants falling from the sky!
Forgot to add city.
It’s Surrey in British Columbia, Canada!
On August 25, 2007, there were so many hordes of ants swarming at sunset that the setting sun was reflecting off them and people thought it was some sort of alien spacecraft formation. A columnist for the local newspaper wrote in asking if anyone knew what it was, and offered to bake her lemon-blueberry muffins for the person with the answer, which was me, since I was in one of the swarms and getting ants in my mouth. I drove 12 miles and the ants were there when I got there too. It was on a day where the low temperature was very high (for here in Bartlett NH) at 67.5 degrees and the high was in the 90s. Years ago, we used to deal with the ant hatches when we were flying our radio controlled airplanes and thousands would adhere to the fuel soaked wings as we flew.
Flying ants here to in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Ok so now there in the house and nite time its bad, there on the TV screen and love the lamps, So now I know everybody has them . How do I get rid of them ? They are only out at nite it seems.
We have had them for about five days now in the house…HELP !!!!!
Thousands of them out of no were outside on the porch. Same thing this time last year again Lots of heat/humidity no rain. Few days of rain and here they are in Hamilton Ontario, Canada.
Any one have ideas how to prevent ?
We have them here in Syracuse, NY! The front porch was covered and then noticed one of my maple trees was covered! yuck!
Millions of them here in Ferndale, MI…scared the crud outta me!!!!! Will they go away or eat me alive?!?!?!!?
We’re in East Waterboro, Maine. This is the first time we’ve ever seen this. We came on-line to find out what these bugs were and are glad to have found this site. All is consistent…lots of rain a few days ago, sunny and warm today, ants crawling out from under an old rotted log, covering a big nearby rock along with little red ants, then flying here, there, and everywhere.
September 20,2007
I am in Evart Michigan. Walked out to my little shed and noticed hundreds of flying ants with little red ants mixed in. I thought they were termites and freaked out, so I decided to come on line and figure out what the heck was going on with these bugs!! We experienced a cold snap here for a few days then it got really warm again and that is when I noticed the winged ants. I can’t wait for them to leave. Nice website, I loved reading what everyone had to say.
I live in Northfield, NH. My 5 year old son pulled me outside for an unbelievable site of thousands of ants and winged ants emerging and some flying away. i also have never seen this before… I couldn’t believe my eyes!
I live in Derry, NH; came across this website while searching for flying ants. I must have one million of them in by backyard. Pretty creepy.
The flying ants just emerged Sunday the 23rd. I came home to my wife standing looking at the ground in aw. She then waved me over, I wondered what I had done. At are front door and yard were what seemed like millions of flying ants being seen off by non flying ants. Never seen this in Harpsell, Me before.
“Harpswell” sorry.
The flying ants were all over the backyard again here in Conn. (06484) today. We’ve been having a warmer than usual and dryer than usual spell. This morning a slight drizzle/fog came in. As soon as the sun came out this afternoon, they started flying out of the ground. (They appeared 2 weeks ago as well!) Had to make sure they weren’t termites. Seems they left their non-winged friends still in the grass. Husband grabbed on to one to look over and make sure it wasn’t a termite. They give off a lemony-pledge smell after handling? what is up with that?