Extreme heat linked to swarms of flying ants
Posted July 4, 2015 8:33 am.
Last Updated July 4, 2015 8:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The hot weather could be to blame for the swarms of flying ants we’ve been seeing in the Lower Mainland lately.
Ants wait until late spring or summer to begin what’s called the nuptial flight.
They use weather signals to coordinate when to release their flying queens so they encounter the highest number of males.
As Dr. Robert Higgins with Thompson Rivers University explains those cues are usually ambiguous and the flight goes unnoticed. “But if you get a dramatic weather event like a sudden movement of hot weather just at the right time. All of the nests in large areas get the message and they all undergo the flights on the same day.”
Higgins thinks the extreme weather could be to blame for the sheer numbers this year. “They usually look for cues from the weather to coordinate flights so that queens of one nest don’t go out all by themselves and not meet any potential males.”
He adds the ants are a great food source for birds and shouldn’t hang around too long.
