If you have seen swarms of little critters that look like flying ants, you may wonder if you are crazy or if some ants actually have wings. You do not need to worry about your sanity because the reproductive classes of most species of ants have wings for at least part of their lives.
Ants form complex social colonies that are divided into castes. The largest and most common caste that we see are the workers.
These ants are responsible for all the work that happens in the colony including: foraging for food, maintaining the nest, tending the larvae, and defending the colony. These workers are all sterile females and do not have wings. The other major castes within the colony are the reproductives.
The life of the colony is the queen or queens. She lays all the eggs and is essential for the survival of the colony. While most of the eggs she lays become workers, future reproductives are also produced.
They can be up to 15mm long. Black garden ant Lasius niger. The queens are much larger than the worker ants. This annual swarming event usually occurs in July or August and coincides with a period of hot and humid weather.
Winged ants appear at different times around the country and local weather conditions are critical for the coordination of swarming activity. Ants tend to fly earlier in urban areas than rural areas, probably because temperatures are generally warmer in urban environments, known as the urban heat island effect. It can be unfortunate timing for tennis players at Wimbledon. There are years when flying ants plague players during their matches, causing so much disruption it makes the news.
However, swarms of flying ants can appear any time between June and the start of September. A multi-year citizen science project by the Royal Society of Biology found that the widely held idea of a 'flying ant day' is actually a misconception : there is no single day when ants fly all at once. Rather, there is a 'flying ant season'. Winged ants actually emerge over several weeks, although there are often several peaks in appearances, each lasting only a few days. The precise pattern of swarming varies from year to year.
Swarming is triggered by the weather : the study found that ants only flew on days when it was warm, not windy and conditions had improved compared to the previous day.
Prior to swarming, ants are going about their everyday business and living in a colony in a nest. Black garden ants nest in dry soil. You'll often find them in flower beds and lawns, and under paving slabs or stones. Patios are a favoured location. They are common in almost any dry, open area that is warmed by the Sun - including gardens, pavements, brownfield sites, heathland, grassland and coastal areas. In the few weeks before the swarming event happens, you may see heaps of soil appearing above the nests.
A Lasius niger ant nest that has been exposed when a paving slab was moved. Worker ants and pupae are visible. Ants live in a caste system, where individuals have specific jobs.
The queen lays the eggs while female workers look after the queen, eggs and larvae. They also gather food, enlarge the nest and otherwise ensure the colony runs smoothly. Most of the eggs develop into workers, but when the colony is ready, the queen begins to produce virgin queens and males. When the winged males drones and virgin queens princesses emerge from the nest, they scatter to maximise the chance of mating between different colonies and reduce inbreeding.
An ant colony can only expand so much. At some point a new queen will need to strike out on her own to begin a new colony. She needs to meet and mate with a male from a different colony and find a new area in which to start building her nest.
Growing wings and flying enables her to do this. So each year, alates emerge from nests and take flight. They aren't interested in people or picnics - they are just looking for a mate. The large winged females and the smaller winged males are often seen flying joined together. This is known as the nuptial flight. Winged ants appear in huge numbers when conditions are right. This maximises the chance of successful mating encounters and survival.
Why do flying ants appear in such large numbers all at once? One reason is that this gives them protection from predators. There really is safety in numbers. Another reason to swarm is to increase the chance of reproduction - with larger numbers of their species around the ants won't have far to look for a mate. Once ants have mated, the role of the males is over. The mated queens quickly chew off their own wings and begin looking for a suitable site in which to nest and set up a new colony.
This is why you often see large ants walking around after a 'flying ant day' and may even see discarded wings scattered over pavements. Once the queen has found a suitable site, she digs herself an underground chamber and lays her first few eggs, which she rears to adulthood. She won't eat for weeks - not until her first brood of daughter workers are ready to forage for food for her. The stock of sperm the queen received during the nuptial flight will enable her to lay fertilised eggs for the rest of her lifetime.
And she has many egg-laying years ahead of her, often reproducing until a colony is thousands strong large nests can have more than 20, workers. So if you see something like looks like an ant with wings, it's likely that it is getting ready to add to its population!
The sudden appearance of swarming ants or termites in flight is not a good sign—it is, in fact, one of the first signs of indoor infestation. This is especially true if it's winter and you have seen more than one—this means that there is a strong likelihood that there is a carpenter ant nest within the structure. If you see a winged ant or two indoors during the summer , it does not necessarily mean there is a problem.
An ant can fly in through an open door or window, but it is likely to die without finding a place to nest. But because the ants are not active outdoors in the winter, a flying ant seen indoors in the winter means that the ants are nesting within the structure—and that is a problem.
Termites don't usually swarm at all in the winter, but they have been known to do so in warm areas of infested buildings—and that is a problem usually requiring that you call a professional. The main difference between ants and termites are the shapes of their bodies and antennae and wings. Carpenter ants have:. Termites have:. Although both carpenter ants and termites can be very destructive to structures:.
To treat for carpenter ants, you can use insecticidal dust, perimeter spray, or baits:. When using any insecticide, it is important and required by law to read and follow all label directions.
Be sure to the product is labeled for carpenter ants. Because of the skill, equipment, and pesticides needed to eliminate termites, Once termites invade your home, control almost always requires professional treatment.
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