Flying ants swarming

There were loads of flying ants today when I went out. Later I read that it is Flying Ant Day and it is an annual occurrence. Although it is not just a day, it is more of a season. The ants swarm to find a mate.

Millions of ants fly off to make new colonies. It is the nuptial flight when virgin queens mate with males then from new colonies. The ants fly on a day that is warm and not windy. We have had a lot of wind recently, but it has finally calmed down.

From Newsshopper :
"Before the swarming or the nuptial flights, ants live in a colony in a nest and each have a specific job role.
The queen lays the eggs while female workers look after the queen, eggs and larvae. They gather food, make their nest bigger and generally ensure the colony runs to plan.
Most of the eggs hatch into worker ants but when the colony is completed, the queen begins to produce virgin queens and males.
When the winged males and virgin queens emerge from the nest, they scatter to maximise the chance of mating between different colonies.
Once ants have mated, the role of the males is over. The mated queens quickly chew off their own wings and begin looking for a suitable site in which to nest and set up a new colony.
This is why you often see large ants walking around after a 'flying ant day' and may even see discarded wings scattered over pavements.
It usually happens at the end of July.
A new queen ant needs to leave the colony where she is born to found a new one. She also needs to mate. So, she leaves her nest with a number of flying male worker ants.

According to the Royal Society of Biology, the large numbers of flying ants which appear in a short space of time increase the chance of reproduction, because there is a very high chance a queen will encounter a male from another nest.
Then, to check he's worthy. she flies away from him, performing acrobatics to test his abilities to catch her.
When he does they mate in mid-air. This kills the male ant.
The Queen then lands to find somewhere to start a new colony. She loses her wings after just one day."

Apparently gulls have been gorging on the ants. The gulls get excitable and distracted and don't look where they are going, so look like they are drunk.

Read more on the Natural History Museum page.

I remember in Malaysia large numbers of flying ants or termites would sometimes appear in the evening and swarm around the lights. These were in Nov 2014, but they were flying too fast to get a good photo -