Flying Ants

[laserblazer]

They are supposed to synchronise their take-off and ours are just launching themselves. Anyne else got them?

[6Foot2]

We don't have them here.

 

There is from Wikipedia:

 

...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...

 

Link: Nuptial flight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[glennda]

we had ours about 3 weeks ago in mid-sussex

[elsiegee40]

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

[AyatollahPies]

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.

[MK-2]

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!

[Flatpackhamster]

Yep, around 6pm yesterday.

[AyatollahPies]

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-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-10711280

Edited July 25, 2011 by AyatollahPies

[webman]

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.

[witch]

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

[featured_spectre]

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

[MK-2]

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

[laserblazer]

Trouble is, if you kill them you are depriving the birds of a good meal!

[MK-2]

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!

[AyatollahPies]

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

 

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.

[ricki]

HI

 

I got home last night and there were hundreds of flying ant all over one side of the green house. I covered then with ant powered. I think it must be the hot weather,

 

Richard

[MK-2]

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.

 

but if we do nothing, we have a garden that is totally unusable during summer months as you can't even walk down the pathway without risk of disturbing them.

i was thinking more of digging down a bit then putting slabs or stuff along the sides of the lawn, so its more difficult for them to get back in if they are in other gardens

[pcstru]

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

 

There is very little you can do and any practicable longer term solution involves changing the local conditions (either to constantly wet or ... concrete/rubble). If you rip up your lawn and patio and re-lay, they will just re-colonise. Might take them a couple of years but if they like the conditions now, they will be back. They are very unlikely to move into the house because they don't actually like the conditions under a house and there are few food sources (assuming you don't leave crumbs or half eaten burgers) around. Occasionally ants will find an entry and forage into a house - only usual if it's direct into a kitchen and they have a relatively short route to a food source. They can be easily dealt with by finding the entry point (follow the line the ants are taking) and blocking it.

 

Waging war on ants is a mugs game - there are billions of them and one of you. They are not particularly destructive - they can be quite beneficial for soil (mixing and aerating) and are sometimes a good indication of wrong conditions for plants (if you have ants in pots, then you are probably not watering enough). Learn to live with them - at least in the garden and save your money and energy for better things.

[localzuk]

As I've mentioned before - dry polenta/semonlina is your friend here. As it is ideal food for them, they collect it and deliver it to the queen, who eats it and then explodes as it expands inside her.

[MK-2]

There is very little you can do and any practicable longer term solution involves changing the local conditions (either to constantly wet or ... concrete/rubble). If you rip up your lawn and patio and re-lay, they will just re-colonise. Might take them a couple of years but if they like the conditions now, they will be back. They are very unlikely to move into the house because they don't actually like the conditions under a house and there are few food sources (assuming you don't leave crumbs or half eaten burgers) around. Occasionally ants will find an entry and forage into a house - only usual if it's direct into a kitchen and they have a relatively short route to a food source. They can be easily dealt with by finding the entry point (follow the line the ants are taking) and blocking it.

 

Waging war on ants is a mugs game - there are billions of them and one of you. They are not particularly destructive - they can be quite beneficial for soil (mixing and aerating) and are sometimes a good indication of wrong conditions for plants (if you have ants in pots, then you are probably not watering enough). Learn to live with them - at least in the garden and save your money and energy for better things.

 

see this is what i keep reading, and had it been black ants i'd kind of agree. but these are red ants, they bite and sting which causes a fair deal of pain from just one bite, there is no "learning to live with them".

it would be like saying i have six tigers in the back garden....well they are good for keeping pests away, learn to live with them. these ants are a danger, it means i cannot walk in the garden (with or without shoes) for fear of disturbing a nest and being bitten countless times. we have to be on guard when hanging washing out as it means walking on the grass. it also means we would have no chance of having kids play out there as its too dangerous to run around on the grass.

 

 

@localzuk does that work with red ants? as ive read red ants are can be more carniverous at times so dont get attracted to the sweet stuff like black ants

[Rodan]

Another deterrent (deter-ant - ) is talcum/baby powder put around the hole. Not only is it cheap and non-toxic but it just makes them move away, we figure they don't like it sticking to their feet. Also in our case it give the house a fresh baby aroma.

[localzuk]

does that work with red ants? as ive read red ants are can be more carniverous at times so dont get attracted to the sweet stuff like black ants

 

I've never tried it with red ants myself, only normal ones, but from what I've read, yes it does - no ant will pass up a free meal really.

[pcstru]

see this is what i keep reading, and had it been black ants i'd kind of agree. but these are red ants, they bite and sting which causes a fair deal of pain from just one bite, there is no "learning to live with them".

it would be like saying i have six tigers in the back garden....well they are good for keeping pests away, learn to live with them. these ants are a danger, it means i cannot walk in the garden (with or without shoes) for fear of disturbing a nest and being bitten countless times. we have to be on guard when hanging washing out as it means walking on the grass. it also means we would have no chance of having kids play out there as its too dangerous to run around on the grass.

 

You must be particularly sensitive or attractive to ants; or perhaps you have just annoyed them too much! I have red and black ants in the garden - most times I dig, I hit a nest. They nest in the grass, under the patio, in the greenhouse , in plant pots when they get the chance. They don't seem to swarm all over the place and comparing them to man eating tigers seems a bit ... err ... loony. I'm quite sensitive to insect bites (not dangerously allergic but bites swell up to golf ball sized lumps) but red ants don't seem to be particularly aggressive.

 

You could try Borax mixed with Jam (1/20 mix borax to jam) , place in strategic places in jam jars and they will take it back to the nest. But it's toxic to pets and children.

Hot water mixed with detergent or an insecticide (something like 'poultry shield' should be quite effective) - target red ant nests but don't target black ant nests at all. In fact if you can, encourage black ants to take the territory rather than read ants). Diatoms might discourage them a bit if used under paving - but again it comes with a toxicity warning. If you are going to start ripping up patios and paving, put an impervious liner 6-12in down, cupped up at the extremes like a subterranean pond. This probably won't be good for the paving in the long term, but ants don't like wet or damp areas, so anything you can do to retain moisture will discourage them.

 

To be honest though, if you are that bothered by them then your only real choice is to either concrete over your garden, turn it into a wetland or perhaps very deep gravel, or move. They are well adapted to their task of colonising and if you have conditions they like, they will come. Sorry if that's not what you want to hear, but that's just how it is.

[6Foot2]

We have been given an electronic device that is supposed to deter all kinds of pests. You plug it in and leave it. We haven't tested it yet but perhaps someone here could comment on its suitability for deterring ant and red ants in particular?

[pcstru]

i was thinking more of digging down a bit then putting slabs or stuff along the sides of the lawn, so its more difficult for them to get back in if they are in other gardens

 

Err, those big flying ones, they be queens. Queens (and other royal pests) can be discouraged by strategic placement of papperatzi.