Flying ant day

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Flying Ant Day is an informal term for a day on which queen ants emerge from the nest to begin their mating flight. In most species, the male ants also fly alongside them, although they are smaller and less noticeable. The queens fly for a while - sometimes being dispersed very long distances, and sometimes going only a few metres - then mate, and drop to the ground where they lose their wings, and attempt to start a colony.

The mass of flying insects often attracts the attention of predators such as birds, so, for example, flocks of feeding swallows or gulls are common in the British Isles on such days, gorging on the readily available food.

This phenomenon occurs in many colonies simultaneously when the local weather conditions are appropriate, to reduce the effectiveness of predation and to ensure that the queens and males from different colonies stand a chance of meeting and interbreeding. It therefore has the appearance of being a 'timed' event or that the ants somehow communicate. However neither of these is likely to be the case - it is simply a common response to temperature, humidity and windspeed.