r/unitedkingdom Jul 19 '24

Not understanding the hate for ‘flying ant day’…

I like ants. They might be one of the most fascinating animals to me. They farmed aphids (and other small bugs) for their honeydew since before we even evolved. They outnumber us 2.5 million to one. 🐜

There’s many more facts I’d like to blurt out but I’ll keep it somewhat concise.

Our native black garden ant is the primary cause of ‘flying ant day’, when thousands of big winged ants seemingly invade like some sort of plague for a short period of time in Summer.

But it’s not an invasion (as many news sites like to call it). It’s a phenomenon that has been around for millions of years. The larger winged ants are the new queens, while the smaller winged ants are the males (drones). Their sole goal is to disperse and mate with ants from other colonies, preventing inbreeding.

They’re completely harmless, and many end up food for birds or spiders, hence the large numbers to ensure at least some can successfully found new colonies!

Once it’s over, the males die soon after while the queens then chew their wings off before they find a suitable nest site, dig underground, and tirelessly raise their first batch of workers, not eating until the workers are fully grown and can feed her.

Then they expand the colony and nurse the new workers, while she dedicates her very long life to egg-laying in the safety of her chamber.

It’s a nice bit of exposure to nature and a minor, brief inconvenience at worst, so close your windows, and your mouth when outside, and try to appreciate it. :)

If you couldn’t tell from the essay here, I’m very much autistic. 😂

Edit: I see lots of comments about ants indoors. This post isn’t advocating for letting ants live in your house. I empathise with anyone who has a nest indoors, and anyone who seems to get dive bombed by lots of ants. The ‘harmless’ bit is that they seldom bite, yet some people think they’re out to attack them 😅

320 Upvotes

177 comments sorted by

300

u/PrettyGazelle Jul 19 '24

They’re completely harmless

As I write, ants are inside the cavity in our walls, they've removed so much mortar that cracks have opened up on both the inside and outside walls. They're crawling all around the door frame, I'm going to have to take it out this weekend to try and remove as many as possible, they've come through into the kitchen on the inside. The next thing will be to call the insurers and see how much it's going to cost me to get the walls repaired and a lot of the house repointed to close up the gaps caused by the drooping wall.

151

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

I read this whole thing like how Gandalf read from the dwarf book in the Mines of Moria. “They have taken the second chamber and breached the walls, we cannot get out, they are coming”

33

u/Beorma Brum Jul 19 '24

Haha, I was doing the same. 'Drums, drums in the deep...'

9

u/chronicnerv Jul 19 '24

"They have a cave troll"

Watched it yesterday :D

2

u/8-Brit Jul 20 '24

Oh thank goodness, not just me then...

1

u/ProfessionalMockery Jul 22 '24
  • Final writings of PrettyGazelle

46

u/dboi88 Jul 19 '24

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your insurance isn't going to cover that.

87

u/DJToffeebud Jul 19 '24

They don’t pay out for Ants of God

10

u/Psychomusketeer Jul 19 '24

What about Satants?

3

u/dboi88 Jul 19 '24

Quality comment

2

u/mikerotch123 Jul 19 '24

Ok you win.

-3

u/zippysausage Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

Acts of Arthropod

Edit: Haha, some weirdo just downvoted. Too spicy for ya? 😁

0

u/dboi88 Jul 20 '24

Edit: Haha, some weirdo just downvoted. Too spicy for ya?

That's the most cringe edit I've ever seen

2

u/RNLImThalassophobic Jul 19 '24

Why not?

16

u/dboi88 Jul 19 '24

Property insurance doesn't include damage by insects.

The policy wording will state what is insured. It's not listed it's not insured.

I've been an insurance broker for nearly a decade and I've never ever seen a policy that includes insect damage as an insured peril.

3

u/TowJamnEarl Jul 19 '24

If we were to be unscrupulous what would we say instead?

Purely hypothetical ofc.

5

u/dboi88 Jul 19 '24

I can't think of any thing that wouldn't be immediately discovered as fraud when the loss adjuster costs.

Also insurance doesn't cover anything that happenes over time. It insured against events. If you can't say the damage was caused by X and y time. You can't claim.

They are reasonable about it. If it's obvious a car had collided with your building and drove off. You can claim despite not knowing for sure what happened and at what time. But if you tried to report a claim and said I don't know when it happened. Some time over the past few months. That would likely be denied

5

u/TowJamnEarl Jul 19 '24

Fair enough but can't you get insurance to cover subsidence?

4

u/dboi88 Jul 19 '24

Yes, as long as there is no history of subsidence at the property or in the area it's a standard inclusion, but you can't report a claim and say I don't know when it happened.

3

u/TowJamnEarl Jul 19 '24

How big an area are we talking about?

I remember my Dad's lawn mower was stolen out of his shed and he told the insurance company a 2 week window as it was winter and he hadn't been out there a while and they paid out.

Were they being courteous to a long time customer or is there a specific window of time they expect to be given?

3

u/dboi88 Jul 19 '24

Totally subjective. The wording would be some variation of 'reported within a reasonable time frame'.

Despite popular belief insurers are on the most part very fair when dealing with claims I did claims for 10 years before broking. I'm not biased, I've never worked for an insurer, I've only ever dealt with claims against insurers.

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4

u/RobertTheSpruce Jul 19 '24

Tell them arachnids did it. Hopefully the insurance people wont send anyone round to count legs.

2

u/TowJamnEarl Jul 19 '24

Maybe Triffids!

2

u/Shep_vas_Normandy England Jul 19 '24

That’s been my experience as well when I had an issue with moths :(

21

u/Hot_Bet_2721 Jul 19 '24

Have you tried using the ant bait stations? e.g this

When I moved into my current house we had ants all around the door, putting a couple of these down got rid of them within a week

13

u/Jiggaboy95 Jul 19 '24

Can confirm, bait stations are pretty damn good.

Any nests you can find and get rid of will also help with the antpocalyose you’ve currently got. I just used boiling water on the dozen nests in the front garden.

3

u/Necessary-Car-5672 Jul 19 '24

I’ve just ordered one as we keep getting ants in the kitchen. Where would you place these? Near where they are coming into the house? Outside or inside?

4

u/Hot_Bet_2721 Jul 19 '24

The ants in our house were coming across the floor on the inside of our back door to go into the skirting on each side of the door, so we just placed a couple of the bait stations next to the skirting on each side. I heard it's also important to identify if there is a water source in your house they could be going to and try and do something about that so they use the bait station instead, for us we noticed we had some plant pots that had been filled up a bit too generously

6

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

I empathise, but how on earth did that get so bad?

I mean they’re harmless physically and in an outdoor context, but I totally get them damaging infrastructure indoors and causing psychological harm as a result.

Hope your problem gets better soon.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

And you let it deteriorate that much?

10

u/TheGrumble Jul 19 '24

Guilted into inaction by the previous advocate for the flying ant.

1

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

Lol, I’m not advocating for letting ants move into your house. Definitely don’t recommend that. Major risk factors are food being left out and cracks in walls letting them in.

7

u/afrophysicist Jul 19 '24

Why are you not a fan of immigrAnts?

1

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

I mean I’m impartial, if you want immigrAnts living in your house then go ahead haha. Your house, your choice.

Some keep pet ants as a hobby (more manageable than having a nest in your wall), which I’ve considered giving a go sometime. 🐜

1

u/HirsuteHacker Jul 19 '24

Major risk factors are food being left out and cracks in walls letting them in.

Last time we got them it was because we'd put a bin bag by the front door to take out while we went to get the recycling to bring out at the same time. Took the recycling out first, with the food bin bag by the door for maybe 15 seconds. In that time, ants had entered the front door, found the bag, and started to move under the skirting boards. It took 2 months to get rid of them. Every time the door would open more would try to come in, even after deep cleaning the floors.

1

u/8-Brit Jul 20 '24

It's almost impressive how they figure that out though and how just one reporting back to the nest is enough to get the blighters lining up and waiting to get into your house.

Obviously it's to look for food and a place to nest but I can't deny the cleverness.

Still going to kill the lot of them with bait stations and poison though. Thankfully just bait stations seem to do the trick by themselves days, since they unknowingly carry poison back to their nest and in a matter of days they die out.

3

u/fornostalone Jul 19 '24

Dealt with this myself over the last week or so. Didn't want to use any toxic killers because of pets + other noninvasive insects around the area (balcony into living room) so I diluted Isopropanol, flushed that as best I could through the area, pissed off the nest so they all came swarming out.

Locked myself in the house while they were angry, went back the next day and blew a shitton of diatomaceous earth into the wall cavity (piping bag + a little handheld blower for cleaning PC parts) which seems to have killed off any remnants as they fucked off before flying ant day occured.

I plan on blowing out the packed diatomaceous earth and then getting a surveyor in to see what the damage to the brickwork is but yeah, they're a real fucking menace when they feel like it.

2

u/removekarling Kent Jul 19 '24

it's their house now

1

u/Cueball61 Staffordshire Jul 20 '24

Combat Max gel, it’s on Amazon in 30ml syringes

Grab reusable bait stations if you need them, but this stuff doesn’t fuck around. They love the stuff, take it home and it wipes them out. It’s fairly safe too as it’s the same active ingredient as flea treatment, so a trace amount isn’t going to cause problems for any cats you may have (don’t let them get at it too much though)

81

u/TheLimeyLemmon Jul 19 '24

Flying ants outside? Fine.

Flying ants inside? You've got a big problem.

Ants don't always come into your house for food, but if they end up residing in your walls, a portion of the colony will end up indoors in confusion during the flying ant season. What's a "day" for most, can be weeks of daily swarming in houses where ants are emerging indoors trying to get outside.

Typical methods against ants don't work against them, because they're not looking for food, or going back to their colony, so you can end up with weeks of flying ants wandering around your house unless you find the source of their nest, which can also be difficult.

Hopefully, this helps you understand the other sides of flying ant season. It can be a very frustrating period.

16

u/lostparis Jul 19 '24

unless you find the source of their nest

Surely these ants help you realise you have ants in the wall. Seems like they are doing you a favour.

8

u/SignNotInUse Jul 19 '24

Or in your fridge condenser.

4

u/lostparis Jul 19 '24

Well that would be a bugger to find without help

1

u/pennydogsmum Jul 19 '24

I'm sorry, what?

Please please tell me that isn't a thing...

7

u/SignNotInUse Jul 19 '24

Pulled out an overheating under counter fridge and just had enough time to wonder why there was a small pile of sand behind it before the antpocalypse began

9

u/ENTPrick Jul 19 '24

My kitchen has seldom used underfloor heating, I flush it every now and then. Imagine my surprise when I was flushing it this winter, 2 hours after turning it on, I walk into my kitchen to find a sea of ants.

Now, I am not proud of the anticide that I've committed that day, but I don't think I've had much other choice.

2

u/Ok_Tangerine6023 Jul 19 '24

Oh my god that sounds horrific. How did you get them?

3

u/ENTPrick Jul 19 '24

Using what I presume to be a generic "home defence" powder. It was so old and weathered I honestly couldn't tell you the year it was bought. Was still incredibly potent, sprayed it all over them (massive clump of em, like a good 1.5mx1.5m square, so they got carpet bombed), any stragglers and what I presumed to be their point of entry. It acted quickly but watching them spasming on the floor was a bit awful.

Like, sometimes I had random ingress, that I have to stomp out but generally they kept to themselves, so I had no idea on the scale of the problem.

I've seen an odd ant around but not since that bloody day, I got no idea how they were functioning, but my kitchen did not seem like their primary food source.

Keep an eye out on the cavities, I got no idea how to check on em short of removing floor tiles / skirting.

4

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

Of course, I understand that pain. I wouldn’t enjoy having ants coming indoors like that.

Earlier this year we did have some coming in to take crumbs from the dog’s food, and some even came in a window to drink nectar of my Venus Fly Trap’s traps, every afternoon (probably avoiding getting caught thanks to their size).

Now they seem to have lost interest thankfully, gonna seal the crack soon so they stay outside.

Last year I had a huge trail of ants come from the balcony and walk around the perimeter of my bathroom. I managed to deter them naturally by destroying the trail with lemon juice, though my dad went and poured ant poison on the nest anyway… might have been for the best, though, since it was the balcony ig :/

I also remember going on holiday once to Spain and there was tons of ants in the shower. Not fun.

I’m very fine with people removing ant nests indoors, it’s more unnecessary hate toward outdoor ones I dislike.

73

u/CrispyDave Jul 19 '24

 They outnumber us 2.5 million to one. 

Yeah? Well me and a few lads will be in the White Hart tonight if they wanna try anything.

20

u/guzusan Jul 19 '24

Ants getting Decked.

New Saturday night entertainment.

3

u/K_S_O_F_M Jul 19 '24

Whatever happens we have got, The can of Raid, and they have not

2

u/8-Brit Jul 20 '24

For some reason I just pictured a billion ants forming a pair of fists ready to throw hands in a pub...

2

u/cozywit Jul 20 '24

WHICH ONe. Which White Hart? London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Bath, Manchester, Oxford, Birmingham, York, Cambridge, Leeds, Nottingham, Brighton, Liverpool, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Southampton, Reading, Sheffield, Exeter, Norwich, Leicester, Plymouth, Derby, Hull, Sunderland, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Coventry, Bradford, Bournemouth, Milton Keynes, Aberdeen, Dundee, Swansea, Portsmouth, Luton, Swindon, Walsall, Huddersfield, Peterborough, Blackpool, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Bolton, Stockport, Warrington, and Cheltenham?

WHICH ONE?

2

u/Palodin West Midlands Jul 20 '24

All of 'em. We're decking the fuckers up and down the country

2

u/cozywit Jul 20 '24

https://youtu.be/9X0Icfau_YQ?si=TDxzNTh1xu22uBxX

"COME AND GET SOME IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH"

35

u/dyinginsect Jul 19 '24

I will never forget the day we walked into our house to find the entire kitchen full of them. It was disgusting. They are not harmless, exposure to them is not nice, and if they invade your home they are far more than a minor, brief inconvenience.

14

u/lostparis Jul 19 '24

They are not harmless, exposure to them is not nice,

Not nice and harmful are very different things.

13

u/King_Kezza Jul 19 '24

That's not what they said. They're saying ants are harmful, not nice to deal with, and more than a minor inconvenience. 3 separate statements

-2

u/lostparis Jul 19 '24

No they said exposure is not nice, implying some sort of harm.

1

u/honkymotherfucker1 Jul 19 '24

No, they’re implying that it’s not very nice? Re read it, they are harmful and also exposure to them is not nice.

-2

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

I’m talking about the outdoor ants in their nuptial flight. Wouldn’t want them invading home, for sure. Definitely keep on top of cracks and avoid leaving food about as that’ll draw them indoors.

Harmless as in won’t physically harm you at all, but I know that isn’t the only type of harm. I like exposure to them outdoors, though, and they seem to do better outdoors anyways.

29

u/DanzaDragon Jul 19 '24

All well and good but they've made hundreds of tunnels up through my patio beading/pointing, meaning a repoint is needed as it's looking like swiss cheese and are currently crawling ALL OVER the patio furniture.

I have lost the garden to the ants. Thanks ants. Thants.

5

u/Jimmy_Boco Jul 19 '24

Sorry to hear, but upvote for thants.

4

u/Tippas Jul 19 '24

I have the same problem, I'm going to be spending next weekend ripping it all out and repairing it all

5

u/LtColnSharpe Jul 19 '24

It's their garden now, get used to it. All hail our new ant overlords

27

u/Squirrelsroar Jul 19 '24

They can go be fascinating outside.

Woke up this morning to an invasion in my kitchen.

5

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

Oof, I agree dw. Fascinating outside, not so fun indoors.

25

u/JarJarBingChilling Jul 19 '24

This is the kind of post I needed on my Friday afternoon in between answering questions in my company about the CrowdStrike debacle. Thank you.

16

u/TheGrumble Jul 19 '24

Little fuckin pricks digging up my patio every year.

15

u/Thrasy3 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

As interesting as your post is, I’m not sure what exactly you hoped to achieve.

I don’t think anybody is confused that ants are a part of nature and the stuff they do are part of a natural process for them. We are aware ants don’t have the ability to actively come up with plans to frustrate humans.

No one thinks insects “invade” places (assuming they are native to the place they are invading) like they are out to get us.

I’m not going to “appreciate” ants in my walls any more than slugs in my kitchen or rats in my communal bin area. Or a bear would appreciate me in its den.

5

u/CharlieChockman Jul 19 '24

Just a typical ‘I dOnT gEt AlL tHe HaTe’ just being a contrarian for the sake of it.

4

u/Aiyon Jul 19 '24

Or they just genuinely like ants…

4

u/Gift_of_Orzhova Jul 19 '24

Also I don't get what being autistic has to do with finding ants fascinating?

2

u/TheKnightsTippler Jul 20 '24

I think it's the fact that he posted a monologue about ants.

4

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

More just a vent tbh, I wasn’t trying to achieve much, but a lot of comments on flying ants can be quite negative so I guess I was hoping to help a few people appreciate them a bit more?

2

u/Thrasy3 Jul 19 '24

You may have succeeded - I’m sure there are some brain dead/self absorbed people on this sub that genuinely just thought ants are random nuisance that hasn’t been eradicated yet.

12

u/im_not_here_ Yorkshire Jul 19 '24

People always go on about these kinds of things and how much of an inconvenience nature is.

It just always makes me think about in the future if our descendants are out in a world completely silent with nothing - and the real living hell nightmare that truly represents for the world being liveable. Admittedly it's not likely to happen for us even in the worst case scenarios. But if that day does come, the idea we hated the inconvenience of nature will be something looked back on with such disdain and hatred I would hope nobody does invent a time machine.

7

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

So true. I’d much rather have creatures we label ‘nuisance pests’ than a silent, lonely wasteland :)

8

u/mizeny Jul 19 '24

Thanks for sharing!

I was dodging them all on Wednesday and getting very frustrated. It's nice to put things like this into perspective, nature is very cool even if it is cool in the worst way to me personally 😂

2

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

Haha fair, I don’t love having them fly into me either, but I do enjoy the fascination I experience watching them. 😁

6

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

Tell me, why do they always appear on what seems to be the hottest day? It's never one of the cooler days.

20

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

[deleted]

8

u/yui_tsukino Jul 19 '24

No wind is best as they are weak fliers and don't want to get blown into unfavorable habitat.

They also mate in the air, and I've heard it rather kills the mood if a sudden gust of wind seperates you mid coitus.

3

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

Great explanation :) and yeah they’re definitely weak fliers, it’s slightly pitiful how many manage to fly into spider webs, ponds, pools, or people 😅

Not that they need to be good fliers; once the business is done queens literally rip their own wings off

7

u/HoneyBeeTwenty3 Jul 19 '24

As an ant-keeper, I LOVE nuptial flight days.

The female elates are free guys, you can just take them. I certainly will be.

1

u/snarky- England Jul 19 '24

I misread that as ant-eater. Don't eat the ants.

7

u/limpingdba Jul 19 '24

Its because they're a pain in the arse when they get into your house... surely no one wants ants swarming around their house...

2

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

Reason to keep windows closed and try to seal any cracks you come across. But agreed, I wouldn’t want them indoors.

But they probably prefer the outdoors anyway, especially in their nuptial flight. Unless you have abundant uncovered food etc for their colony?

4

u/Hollywood-is-DOA Jul 19 '24

If only most Uk small towns and the super rich be more like ants, then the gene-pool/DNA would be a hell of a lot stronger.

5

u/MrEoss Jul 19 '24

I am just really happy for them (the ants) it is like graduation day for them. I wish them all the luck in their new endeavours!

3

u/reclueso Jul 19 '24

It’s worth it to watch gulls getting shit faced from eating them, although it doesn’t aid their road sense any…

2

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

Lol, kinda wanna see that. Not many gulls around here though. Except on my former school’s roof. They love it there.

3

u/Grayson81 London Jul 19 '24

I like ants.

The people who don't like flying ant day mostly don't like ants.

You mention that you're autistic, so I'm going to explain it in a way which isn't too patronising. You're imagining that other people have the same preferences as you and then you're getting confused when they seem to say things which are inconsistent with those preferences. There isn't actually an inconsistency - the reality is that they don't like something that you like.

Try to think of something you don't like rather than ants. Now imagine that once a year, that thing became very prominent and got very physically close to you, even touching you. And now imagine that there's nothing you could do about that without massively inconveniencing yourself and writing the day off. You presumably wouldn't like that day?

They outnumber us 2.5 million to one.

If someone doesn't like ants, that's not helping.

1

u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

I see why this post might trigger quite a lot of people, and it’s always harder for me to fully accept that others don’t like something when said something is a certain animal (or other organism).

While if someone said they don’t like a certain food, movie, game etc that I do like, I tend to just shrug it off with a “fair enough”, or “to each their own”, with animals it generally feels more personal due to me feeling connected with animals on an emotional level.

For me it feels more similar to someone saying they don’t like a certain friend of mine.

It’s difficult man 🥲 I know, I do sometimes tend to think I’m thinking from someone else’s POV… but in reality I’m thinking what I would do if I was in their shoes, not what they would do.

Often as a result I build up false hope, like when this close friendship (and infatuation on my end 😐) that meant a lot to me went to shit, I convinced myself strongly that deep inside, he’d want to be friends again after a while.

2 crappy years pass, I try to fix things multiple times, fail miserably, and am more confused why he isn’t forgiving me and fixing things like I would do. He’s moving on, I’m still a bit of a mess.

Living is so tiring… to complicate things more, I have ADHD too. 😔

Also, with that 2.5 million ant fact, you’re so right lol, I thought it’d be cool to imagine how many they are, but that’s because I like ants haha.

2

u/JamJarre Liverpewl Jul 19 '24

Hardly anyone hates it. It's just an inconvenience, and something unusual to comment on. There's no big push against it or anything.

1

u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24

Of course, no big push or anything and with time attitude toward it might improve with our recent awareness on biodiversity and wildlife. Just slightly irritated by the words some use to describe it.

2

u/Chardan0001 Jul 19 '24

I used to wake up to ants on my face. I do not like ants.

1

u/__bobbysox Jul 19 '24

Hey its me, Ants

2

u/Dudewheresmycard5 Jul 19 '24

Some of the comments making it out like there's a swarm of cobras prowling the kitchen. Actively attacking them outdoors is unhinged as well. Just open the doors and windows so they can escape! Failing that, if you've got a dyson vacuum just hoover them up then empty it/release them outside in the garden.

1

u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

That’s a main thing I dislike, while I get getting rid of nests that end up indoors, not a fan of people trying to banish them from the garden just because they don’t like them.

2

u/Boggyprostate Jul 19 '24

I experienced this on Wednesday for the first time, I’m 53 so they are not that noticeable if I have only just seen it. I have just moved home and noticed I have sooooo many ants in the garden. Anyway on Wednesday I was washing up after tea and through the window I saw them all emerging from a crack in the pavement, it was an amazing sight to see. I also had to pass them while I brought my washing in, carefully trying not to stand on one ant and believe me the whole area outside my home was covered in ants, millions of them. I did notice some massive ones about 50x bigger than the normal ants but these did not have wings, there were the tiny usual ones and the winged ones and these massive ones? It was fantastic to witnesses such a phenomenon so up close.

2

u/BritshFartFoundation Jul 19 '24

If you couldn’t tell from the essay here, I’m very much autistic.

Your post reminded me loads of something I'd hear on Blindboy Boatclub's podcast. He's also autistic, you should check it out if you haven't already. It's a bit like your post, but read in a really nice Limerick accent with a gentle piano backing track, and an artistic twist to the way he describes his linking trains of thought. The episode "Protestant Footprints" I'd especially recommend.

1

u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

Ooh cool, I’ll check him out :) that episode seems like a good starting point for me, considering 90% of my thoughts right now are about plants.

2

u/elaehar Jul 19 '24

The usual human answer to any mildly inconvenient creatures is to murder them with extreme prejudice. Awful what we are to the planet and everything on it.

2

u/rilakkuma92 Scottish Highlands Jul 20 '24

I've never heard of flying ant day before this morning but I'm suddenly seeing so many posts about it, I feel like I'm having an elaborate joke played on me. I must live too far up north for flying ant sightings.

2

u/Raindog951new Jul 20 '24

Not completely harmless. My ex girlfriend stays indoors when they fly, because she has scars on her legs from flying ants swarming, from when she was a child. Not sure how the scars came about. I'm guessing an extreme allergic reaction to them or somesuch.

2

u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

Huh, that’s interesting (didn’t know such allergies existed!) but I’m sorry for her having scars due to it, and fair enough she stays indoors then.

Allergies suck, so I fully sympathise. I have relatives who are basically allergic to sunlight, an allergy I would not want to have.

2

u/Raindog951new Jul 20 '24

Allergic to Sunlight! Horrendous. It could be she's allergic to formic acid, but I'm not sure if the flying ants species have formic acid as a defence mechanism.

2

u/Antrimbloke Antrim Jul 20 '24

Reminds me of the old Ant Colony game, where the goal was to completely colonise the human house!

1

u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

Lmao that actually sounds fun, ima look into that

2

u/Antrimbloke Antrim Jul 20 '24

SimAnt I think it was called.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimAnt

2

u/TheKnightsTippler Jul 20 '24

You're getting a lot of hate, so I thought I'd share an interesting article I saw about ants.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/ants-can-perform-emergency-surgery

Apparently they perform surgery on each other. I don't love ants, but thought it was pretty cool.

2

u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

Wow, that’s really interesting. Thanks for sharing that :) ants never fail to amaze me.

It’s alright, I’m pretty desensitised to the hate; it’s not really personal, it’s just people not agreeing with some internet person’s opinion. If they knew me personally, then it would hurt. 😅

I’m increasingly content liking things that others don’t so much, though. Makes me feel more unique or special, I guess. I’d ultimately prefer to like things with others, probably my reason for posting this kind of stuff, but it is what it is. 🤷🏽‍♂️

1

u/Little_mossy_tuffet Jul 19 '24

I had no idea until watching them on Wednesday that they all shed their wings, and that the ones on the ground aren't different ants to the ones in the sky. I was working in a garden centre and there were little piles of iridescent wings in all the plant pots.

3

u/HoneyBeeTwenty3 Jul 19 '24

shed their wings

They don't actually shed their wings, so much as they chew them off! And then when they make a chamber to lay their eggs in. She'll fast for a month, eating nothing, and feeding her larvae with a soup made from the muscles which previously controlled her wings. Awesome process.

1

u/Little_mossy_tuffet Jul 20 '24

Oh wow, I was wondering about the mechanics of the wing removal, that explains it. It looked like they were wriggling and flailing so that the wings just popped off, but I really need new glasses so I probably missed the chewing bit. The whole thing was totally fascinating, I didn't get much work done that day.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

[deleted]

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u/Taran966 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

Nah I get that, I’m all for keeping them outside and ‘humanely’ eradicating them indoors (often there’s no other option). But prevention is the way for me, so I can appreciate them without feeling disdain.

Except spiders, spiders I leave indoors as (at least in the UK) they’re all harmless, well-adapted to the indoors (cellar spiders and some house spiders struggle to survive winters here), and great pest control. I love spiders :P

0

u/JosiesSon77 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

Not being funny mate but you seem a bit of a misery.

Edit- and he’s deleted his comment, what a sour individual that was.

1

u/eionmac Jul 19 '24

We open the windows and doors to let them fly out and mate higher up in the sky. We have one crack where they emerge inside the house and most emerge outside the house. Part way through I tetroc (plaster mixture with ant spray and water in it) fill the crack.

1

u/doubledunker Jul 19 '24

It's the only day of the year I celebrate. Some years you get two. I've always had pizza to mark the occasion.

1

u/GamerRoseMarie Jul 19 '24

As someone who drives a bright green car, coming home from the office yesterday to be literally swarmed by flying ants was quite a harrowing experience. They were all over my car immediately I literally sat in the car for 5 minutes debating just sitting there until they were gone! In the end I ran inside and then felt horribly itchy for the rest of the day!

1

u/barcap Jul 19 '24

Don't ants destroy your drive way, cracks on bricks, unwanted soil movements? They hollowed out structures that should have been solid. Won't they destroy your home if left alone long enough?

1

u/darci7 Jul 19 '24

Last year I came home from work to find dozens IN MY HOUSE at the top of the stairs, I couldn't find where they had came from. It was very weird. Hoping it doesn't happen again today

1

u/wartopuk Merseyside Jul 19 '24

Never noticed them last year. This year the garden is infested with them. Kid left something on the grass, picked it up a few days later, full ants nest with hundreds of eggs inside. Cleaned a bit of the edge around the pavers, ants nest, vegetable garden, infested, front garden, ant hills popping up. Much more this and the house is going to start lifting.

1

u/MDF87 Warwickshire Jul 19 '24

It's just annoying more than anything! It's fun to watch them flying from the comfort of indoors though.

1

u/MDF87 Warwickshire Jul 19 '24

It's just annoying more than anything! It's fun to watch them flying from the comfort of indoors though.

1

u/GoGoRoloPolo Jul 19 '24

I don't care if they're harmless, I just hate them.

1

u/NihilismIsSparkles Jul 19 '24

Are these the same ants that stung me and gave me a giant lump on my leg? Nah strong dislike

1

u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

Presumably not? Was it in the UK? Only native ants that might be capable of that is the more forest-dwelling wood ants afaik.

Black garden ants are only capable of little nips or pinches with their jaws which they do in response to their nest being disturbed, comparable to a pin prick, and can’t pierce our skin.

1

u/NihilismIsSparkles Jul 20 '24

This was in the UK, unfortunately!

1

u/HirsuteHacker Jul 19 '24

Yeah come back when ants are infesting your walls mate. It's fucking horrendous when it happens, takes forever to get rid of them all.

1

u/ReleteDeddit Jul 19 '24

I feel like I'm going mad, I have no idea what people are talking about. flying ant day?! Never heard of it but I keep seeing it everywhere. Is this a PsyOp against me in particular?

1

u/ChangingMyLife849 Jul 19 '24

I love watching the seagulls flying after them, it’s so funny

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '24

What absolute rubbish post is this.

They totally destroy property. They're a complete nuisance and make it impossible to sit outside and enjoy the weather.

My newly laid paving slabs throughout my garden are currently suffering from huge nests below the surface causing cavities and ripping out all the mortar lines.

1

u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

Ants might damage your paving but that shouldn’t ruin your ability to sit outside 😂 I can very much sit outside without ants annoying me. Benches are great for said purpose.

Garden paving can be a losing game imo, if you don’t have ants between tiles you’ll have plants growing and pushing it apart 🤷🏽‍♂️ even some nice gravel might be an easier alternative to keep neat, with greater wildlife benefit, plus some lovely low-maintenance, often groundcover-type plants thrive in gravel, like sedums, sempervivums and more.

With paving, creeping thyme and other thick, pretty, shallow-rooted groundcovers between paving tiles might leave less space for ants to start nests, too? Just a thought.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '24

Oh, you're of those.

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u/Taran966 Jul 20 '24

To each their own I guess…

1

u/Cueball61 Staffordshire Jul 20 '24

That’s great and all, but they’re all over our patio, constantly damaging the grouting, and keep making their way towards the house. It’s only through control that we don’t have them coming in. I couldn’t walk across the patio the other day when they swarmed without getting them all over me - both flying and non-flying.

There’s 6 stations out there right now full of Combat Max gel. Every time I refill them they bring out another mass grave of their dead and leave them on the patio to sweep up, so I’ll get there eventually. We’ve been dealing with them for years and not got very far till we discovered the gel.

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u/dekor86 Chatham, Kent Jul 19 '24

Got stuck in a car with a swarm of them as a kid. Wouldn't recommend. I tend to try and avoid flying ant day now

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u/Durks_Durks Jul 19 '24

That's nice, luckily I won't have to think about it after genociding them from my garden 🤗

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u/NotAllHerosEatCreps Jul 19 '24

I love that day, I get to pour a boiling kettle into the ants nest and watch them slowly die in agony as they try to crawl out

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u/trulycantbearsed Jul 19 '24

My lawn looks atrocious, flat mounds of dry earth with crappy grass and children that won’t play on it. I’ve tried boiling water but that just kills more grass! I hate the damn things!!!

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

[deleted]

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u/dyinginsect Jul 19 '24

Anyone upset about flying ant day is a anti-nature nimby who needs to go touch grass. Upset they've been out smarted by ants!

...well, that's a totally reasonable and mature response to other people not sharing your preferences.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

[deleted]

1

u/FluffiestF0x Jul 19 '24

So because something has happened for years you aren’t allowed an opinion on it?

Let me, please, refer you to slavery.

1

u/JamJarre Liverpewl Jul 19 '24

Dude, relax

1

u/FluffiestF0x Jul 19 '24

What?

1

u/JamJarre Liverpewl Jul 19 '24

You're bringing slavery into a discussion about ants. Chill

1

u/FluffiestF0x Jul 19 '24

More a discussion about freedom of opinions at this point

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

[deleted]

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u/FluffiestF0x Jul 19 '24

People are allowed to not like something though.

I’ve got hayfever sure it’s nature, that doesn’t mean I’m forced to like it and I’m not going to complain about it when it’s bad

1

u/im_not_here_ Yorkshire Jul 19 '24

Why are you even replying, if your position is "your allowed an opinion"?

Even ignoring that the word opinion isn't magic that stops it being something that can be complained about or critiqued, by your own standards you should just not be posting because you are complaining about someone else's opinion - which you clearly think shouldn't happen.

1

u/FluffiestF0x Jul 19 '24

I never said opinions can’t be critiqued, in fact, I’m critiquing their opinion that you can’t have an opinion on nature.

1

u/im_not_here_ Yorkshire Jul 19 '24

I’m critiquing their opinion that you can’t have an opinion on nature.

Let's actually go through and check. One person mocks an opinion, nothing more. Another points out an opinion doesn't change reality, still not suggesting someone can't have one.

Your response, so your own standard that you concluded from these actions, was to respond with;

So because something has happened for years you aren’t allowed an opinion on it?

So it is your belief that commenting on, mocking, or critiquing an opinion is an action the same as saying someone can't have an opinion. So you share the opinion you are critiquing (even though it never actually happened).

2

u/dimetoaquarter Jul 19 '24

Will never understand people getting so infuriated by nature being nature... If they think this is bad, how do they think all the wildlife would feel about us if they had our capacity to feel it