Florence

Earlier this month it was reported in The Wattlebury Gazette that there had been flying ants spotted in great numbers. From London to Poole and Bristol to Sheffield. And it prompted people to wonder (as they do every year) if there was a 'Flying Ant Day'. A day when they instinctively know to gather. I have however done a little research into this phenomenon and can say without any shadow of a doubt that it is a load of old twaddle and their swarmings merely follow a hot sunny day, which has in its turn has followed a windy, cloudy and rainy week. The balmy warm evening air and long daylight hours make for the perfect conditions to fly and dig new nests. This may be a different day in different parts of the country - ours was last Saturday.
Mum was off to the evening wedding reception of one of Kizzie's best friends, Gemma. As she waited at the end of Wattlebury Lane for Rachel to pick her up, she espied Florence the Flying Ant. Florence was not alone, but accompanied by many worker ants. It reminded Mum of Gemma in her beautiful wedding dress surrounded by friends and family. Several smaller winged ants swooped in the warmth, causing Mum to duck and dive - which must have looked jolly funny to passing motorists.
Flying ants form various colonies then swarm around certain places in the area, usually a place of slightly higher elevation, such as a hill, tree or fence post, like Florence. This is sometimes referred to as hilltopping. Mating typically takes place within a single day. The males then die, and the females disperse to establish colonies or, in some rare cases, to return to their original colonies.

Flying ants are the sexually mature queens and males of the common black ant who have left their respective nests to swarm and find mates.
The queens fly around—some very long distances, and others going only a few yards - then mate, and drop to the ground where they lose their wings, and attempt to start a new ant colony. The mass of flying insects often attracts the attention of predators, such as ourselves and other birds - and it is common to see flocks of feeding birds gorging on the readily available food.

They are not a separate species of ants. They are simply ants at a particular stage of life — specifically, the mating stage. Not every individual ant goes through this stage. Males who go through this stage die soon after mating. Most female flying ants also die soon after mating, but a few become queen ants, lose their wings and then lay eggs for the rest of their lives to populate their colonies. And a jolly ripe old age some can live to as well.
The thousands of worker ants are sterile, wingless females. In ant species that reproduce sexually, after the colony is well-established, the queen ant will produce a small number of winged females and many more males. So now you have it. Florence and the Fence Post - nature at it's very best. Gordon xxx