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About LinkBacksThey are supposed to synchronise their take-off and ours are just launching themselves. Anyne else got them?
They are supposed to synchronise their take-off and ours are just launching themselves. Anyne else got them?
We don't have them here.
There is from Wikipedia:
Link: Nuptial flight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...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 and time of year...
we had ours about 3 weeks ago in mid-sussex
In Kent ours were about a fortnight ago. It's always a humid evening and I spend the next couple of days being liberal with the ant powder dissuading them from moving into the house
You should see them under my greenhouse! Little oiks.
I do admire their efficiency and intelligence. Last year I killed off a lot using a jam jar half filled with a mix of water and Marmalade. They drowned by the hundreds. This year not one has drowned. I also used some of the Nippon powder, ant traps and artificial sweetener last year. Non have worked so far. In truth, they didn't even attack my crops, so I was being an evil sod for no reason.
Therefore I have decided to make peace with them, and focus my energy on getting Snails drunk instead.
don't get me started with ants. we've been fighting a long battle with red ants. all the advice on the internet says "apart from a nasty bite they are harmless, leave them" which is great advice when half the grass is covered in them and they are now marching towards the house and living under the patio.
its like saying "own a pet tiger, apart from the chance of sudden mutilation, they are fine".
i used some ant!stop granules which killed off hundreds of black ants, but the red ones just had no effect!
i've boiled quite a lot of flying red ants trying to make their way out of the lawn into the air, buggered if im going to let them land somewhere else in the garden and start again!
Yep, around 6pm yesterday.
Just got home to find 1000s of ants getting jiggy all around the border of my greenhouse.
My Tommies et al will have to wait until later for their evening drink. Don't fancy being coated in them.
For those of you wondering what the rest of us are on about - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-fife-10711280
Last edited by AyatollahPies; 25th July 2011 at 06:16 PM.
Horrible little things. A couple of years ago we suddenly had an army of these crawling around the kitchen floor and in the cupboard under the stairs, but never saw them flying. That took a LOT of powder to get rid of them.
Our flying ant day in Dorset was about three weeks ago. They were all over the patio but when I went back and looked about 6 hours later they were all gone - leaving behind a few ants who really aren't much trouble at all
I found that if I leave a small blob of Jam once every 3 or 4 days (by small blob I mean less than half a teaspoon) and mix it with ant powder the colony of ants die out within 3 weeks and I do it when first I see the ants
got home last night, saw a few hundred ants (flying and normal) on our lawn. doused them all with hot water and thought that was it. an hour later we went outside and the whole lawn was crawling in them, it was like ant mist!
couldn't keep boiling kettle so just doused them all in cold water instead to stop them flying off everywhere. took about an hour to get them under control.
we are now having to look at the possibility of ripping up our lawn and patio as there is at least 1 red ant nest under there somewhere and they are moving towards the house.....and rentokil were absolutely useless, saying nothing at all they could do to kill red ants
Trouble is, if you kill them you are depriving the birds of a good meal!
trouble is if i dont, we cannot walk on or near our lawn as the red ones bite and sting, black ants i dont mind so much!Originally Posted by laserblazer
Sounds like you have more than 1 nest. If your neighbours also have nests then I wouldn't spend lots of money digging your garden up as they'll just return.
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