When is flying ant day 2023? Why so many flying ants suddenly appear and how long they live for
There are many hallmarks of the Great British summer – Wimbledon, hay fever and, of course, Flying Ant Day.
Every year, you’ll be taken by surprise when the weather warms up and the air suddenly feels thick with unstoppable swarms of the winged insects.
But why does it happen, and is there any way of predicting when Flying Ant Day will actually fall?
When is flying ant day?
The concept of a “flying ant day” is actually misleading – there’s no set day where the winged insects set forth to terrorise the nation.
However, the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) acknowledges that the creatures “often seem to appear on the same day in different locations in the UK”, so it’s easy to see how the misconception developed.
The RSB says: “Our citizen science project, the Flying Ant Survey, has found that there is not actually one day where these ants all appear all at once, but that, depending on weather conditions, the ants can start emerging and flying at almost any point during the summer months, and won’t all necessarily appear only on one day either.”
It adds: “The frequency in which the flying ants appear changes each year and is dependent on the weather.
“Colonies also don’t exhibit any significant geographical co-ordination when it comes to taking to the skies; one garden may see flying ants on one day, with neighbours seeing them weeks or even months later.”
The key factor for when you will see flying ants in your area is the weather conditions – the RSB found that they proliferated every day in the UK summer with a mean temperature above 25°C.
This means that you’re most likely to see them in the UK in July and August, when average temperatures tend to peak.
According to Natural History Museum, flying ants tend to swarm earlier in urban areas than rural regions, possibly because temperatures tend to be higher in these environments.
Pest controllers Merlin Environmental analysed search data to look at when people are googling for information on flying ants as a guide to when “flying ant day” is most likely to fall.
While perhaps not a perfectly scientific approach, this analysis found the highest search peaks in July.
Why do flying ants suddenly appear?
Flying ants appear when a new queen needs to strike out and form a new colony, once the previous one is becoming too crowded.
In order to find a male from another colony to mate with, and begin building her new nest, the queen grows wings and takes to the skies.
Usually, the majority of ants born in a colony are female worker ants – but the queen will begin to produce winged male ants and virgin queens when it’s time to expand.
The smaller winged males will take flight alongside the queens, who will often mate with several males during what is known as the nuptial flight.
They form huge swarms to maximise their chances of mating successfully, and to give themselves safety in numbers against predators.
With their role fulfilled, the males will die shortly after mating – usually within a couple of days – while the queens chew off their own wings and find a suitable nesting site where she can lay her eggs and form a fresh colony.
Flying ants are not harmful, so if some emerge in your garden it’s best to leave them alone, and they will disappear after a few hours.
