What is flying ant day and why does it happen?

We’re all familiar with the black garden ant (lasius niger). From built-up cities to the sprawling countryside, ants can be seen scurrying along their trails in search of some sugary sustenance. During the summer, though, winged ants will take to the skies in a phenomenon dubbed “flying ant day”. If you’ve ever wondered what flying ant day is and why it happens, we’ve got some answers for you.

Meet the colony

Ants live in large groups, known as colonies, where each ant plays a role in the survival of their population. Worker ants are the ones we see the most often. Exclusively female, they are responsible for gathering food and looking after the nest. Drone ants are the only males in the colony, and their role is to mate with the virgin queen, or “princess”, ants. They typically stay underground in the nest until it’s time to mate. The queen ant is the only member of the colony who produces eggs. Most of these eggs will become worker ants, but when the colony is ready, the queen will produce drones and virgin queens. These drone ants and virgin queens, known as alates, are winged, and they’re what we see on flying ant day.

So, why fly?

When the virgin queens and drones ready, they’ll emerge from the nest and take to the skies to seek out a mate, in an event known as the nuptial flight. As they spread their wings, ants can travel further away from their nest and meet mates from different ant colonies, ensuring they maintain genetic diversity. As well as this, the thousands of ants swarming the air makes it more difficult for predators to attack them. Although, as our friends at Bird Aware Solent will tell you, you’ll likely see lots more gulls in the air than usual as they feed on the flying ants.

What happens next?

No longer needing her wings, the queen will chew them off and discard them, before searching for a new site to build her nest. Once she’s found somewhere, she’ll dig down into the ground and lay some eggs, and these will become her first female worker ants. Once they’ve mated with the queen, the male drone ants no longer have any purpose in the colony, living only a couple of days beyond the nuptial flight.

When does flying ant day happen?

Here’s the thing: flying ant day is actually more of a flying ant season. This occurs throughout the summer when the weather is hot and humid. In fact, these conditions are so important to ants, we’ll see ants emerging from their nests on different days around the country. Ants tend to spread their wings earlier in urban areas, as these tend to be warmer than rural areas. Because of this, even neighbouring cities like Southampton and Winchester will see flying ants swarming on different days.