As soaring temperatures grip parts of the UK, swarms of flying ants have begun to appear across the country. An expert has urged Britons to “keep an eye on them” amid the sudden surge.
These winged ants – reproductive members of their colonies – are participating in their annual mating flight, a natural occurrence that typically aligns with warm, humid conditions. Their emergence coincides with a heatwave and yellow heat health alert currently in effect across England, lasting from midday Thursday until 9am Monday. The UK Health Security Agency warns of “significant impacts” on health and social care services.
The Royal Society of Biology reports that, under favourable weather conditions, flying ants are active on approximately 96% of days between June and September.
The current spell of hot weather has provided optimal conditions for these insects to embark on their nuptial flight, an annual mating ritual.
Cesar Wang, director of Ants HQ, a company specialising in live ant supply, has noted that Britons can expect the flying ant phenomenon to persist until early to mid-September, in line with the UK’s nuptial flight season.
He told GB News: “It typically happens in summer, and this is how ants reproduce. This is how virgin queen ants will start their own colony.
“Now you can imagine it’s quite an impressive feat. They first need to fly in the air, they need to find several hundred mates, and they need to try to evade predators all at the same time.”
He explained the reason why Britons are seeing the swarms is mainly due to the hot weather, because environmental conditions trigger their flights.
Mr Wang said: “For a nocturn to happen successfully, you normally need a few things. The first one is heavy rain a few days before this, in theory, means that the soil is nice and humid and easy to dig for the newly mated queens. Secondly, you need a day where it’s fairly warm, so plenty of sunshine and low winds.”
