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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
National
Lorna Hughes

Why there are so many flying ants around and how to deal with them

Flying ant season has hit Nottinghamshire, with swarms of insects spotted across the county.

Although it might seem like they appear all at once, winged ants emerge over several weeks plus several peaks in appearances.

READ MORE: Residents 'stunned' that parts of Nottingham's famous Castle Rock is actually hollow fibre-glass

Swarms of flying ants can appear any time between June and the start of September, and you'll spot them during warm and dry weather.

It usually builds up to a day when millions of flying ants emerge - this tends to be during a spell of humid conditions following wet weather.

Although known as Flying Ant Day, it doesn't necessarily happen on one day or even the same day each year.

What are flying ants?

Flying ants are ants that are sexually mature. They are just normal ants - with wings - and they take to the skies so that queens can mate with males from different colonies.

The flying ants you see will be males and young queens.

Males do not do any work in the ant nest, so once flying ant day is over, they have served their purpose and will only live for a couple of days after the event.

The Natural History Museum says: "In the UK, particularly in urban areas, the winged insects you see are almost always the sexually mature queens and males of the black garden ant, Lasius niger.

"The larger ants are the queens. They can be up to 15mm long."

Are flying ants dangerous and do they bite?

Flying ants are looking for a mate - so they are not interested in humans, or your food.

They are very unlikely to bite.

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