Second Flying Ant Day

Following a flying ant day on 7th July, mainly the nest on our rockery, we have just had another flying ant day this evening. This is the nuptial flight, the larger queens leave the best pursued soon after by the smaller males - survival of the fittest.

This time the main focus was nest sites in our front garden and under the paving slabs of the path outside our house. The above, mainly smaller males, on our front path.

Not a surprise as the last 4 years I have been taking part in the Flying Ant Day survey the 'Royal Society of Biologists' - plotting flying ant days across the country.

A couple of queen ants.


As part of the public involvement they encouraged unusual pictures and managed a close up of a queen sighting on the end of my finger and I try to  better it each year.

Sadly not so good this year. However it does help trying to photograph a queen in flight.

The field ants nest appears to have moved from our garden this year as they came up out of the pavement outside our house.

Please to see they have not gone far.

As always, many of the ants don't make it very far and those that do run the gauntlet of the gulls, swifts and other birds.

More on flying ants nuptial flight

Following the black ant nuptial flight on 31st July, we had a major flying ant event today starting at 5.15pm. This time the large ant nest in the back garden had a major nuptial flight, queens and males pouring out of the nest and launching into the air.

Some of the flying ants were caught in a spider web just above the nest, see top right of picture above.

There was also a major nuptial flight from the nest in our front garden, swarming up te fence post before fling from this elevated position.

 This seemed to be the main ant day for my neighbourhood as their were many other ants on the wing and later in the evening we drove down to the beach and encountered many flying ants on the way.

Records were again sent to the survey by the Royal Society of Biology see more at see more at get-involved/biologyweek/flying-ant-survey  and also my blog entry below 31st and 30th July.

Black ant nuptial flight

Its that time of year when the flying ants take to the sky, new queens and males on their nuptial flight.  

The Royal Society of Biology (formerly the Society of Biology) have been running a flying ant survey in collaboration with the University of  Gloucestershire between 2012 and 2014 and I have provided my records for this survey.  This year, the survey is more informal but society is keen to receive reports, find out more at  get-involved/biologyweek/flying-ant-survey

Ants had been gathering around the entrance holes of the ant nest outside the garden under the pavement at least an hour before the nuptial flight. At 7.40pm, ants started to pour out of the ground near our front door, streaming up the wall and also the flower pot by the door. 

They took flight when they had gained enough height although some launched from the ground.

The yellow field ant’s nuptial flight, from a small nest in the front garden, also took place at the same time. 

The black ant’s nuptial flight from the nest outside our garden occurred not long after.  I set up the USB microscope to have a closer look. 

As the queens were leaving the nest several worker ants were positioned around the hole with their jaws open wide.

 As usual, the nuptial flight attracted herring gulls and smaller birds such as sparrow and starlings. Some of the flying ants were taken on the wing while others were picked up off the ground.

The largest black ant nest, which is in the back garden did not have a nuptial flight, although by this time of the day the back of the garden was in shade and the air was quite cool. Not only was the air warm, the ground had absorbed the heat from the sun all afternoon.

Black ants preparing for nuptial flight

The black ants are getting busy in our garden preparing for their nuptial flight. In the back garden on the rockery they have been building a huge mound of soil - an amazing feat of earth moving for their size.

From past experience I have found the nursery chambers are beneath the rocks that absorb and retain the suns heat. The ants are now building soil chimneys up the side of one of the rocks.

Back on 23rd July, a aborted nuptial flight took place at 5.50pm from the nest outside of our garden beneath the pavement.  

A few of the queens left the nest and some were eaten by sparrows that found them on the ground. But they seemed to change their mind (wrong environmental conditions!) and went back inside.