26/05/2026
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😬Experts have suggested we can soon expect a surge in flying ants, driven by the perfect mix of sporadic wet and mild conditions throughout the UK.
Referred to as Flying Ant Day, the annual mating flight where countless winged ants take to the skies in coordinated swarms, could be amongst the largest in recent memory. But while it's known as Flying Ant Day, it typically extends over multiple days, and has even been recorded to continue for several weeks in some years.
According to specialists at Best Ants UK, this year's will likely "come earlier and be more intense than before". Experts at the Natural History Museum explain that flying ants are referred to as alates.
In the UK, especially in built-up areas, the winged creatures you observe are nearly always the sexually mature queens and males of the black garden ant, Lasius niger. The bigger ants are the queens, and these can measure up to 15 millimetres in length.
Ants tend to take flight sooner in built-up areas than countryside regions, likely because temperatures are typically warmer in urban settings, recognised as the urban heat island effect. Swarms often first appear in southern regions such as Cornwall and Kent, Best Ants UK added, before spreading north across the UK.
✍Kate Lally
