Jul 19, 2007
Flying Ant Day - Reported
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.
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?