Hello! Thank you for popping in. Today I am dancing an excited little happy dance because... the temperature has dropped to a much more comfortable 22 degrees and when I looked out of the window at 6 o'clock this morning it was raining for the first time in more than six weeks. Yippeeeeeeeeeee! The rain didn't last for long, only half an hour or so I think, but it meant that I didn't have to water the pots this morning and the air smells and feels fresher.
This seems to be Butterfly Week. There are plenty of them fluttering about the garden and on Tuesday I was thrilled to see a Comma, a Small Tortoiseshell, a Peacock and a Large White all there at the same time. I have rarely seen Commas in the garden so that was a special treat. The buddleias and lavenders are in flower and they are welcoming lots of bees as well as the butterflies, which pleases me greatly. Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in my summerhouse with the doors open, watching several Peacocks feeding on the buddleia, when I noticed large numbers of smaller flying insects rising up around them. I sat there wondering what they were for a while and didn't work it out until I looked down: they were flying ants. The patio was absolutely covered in them, it looked like a plague of biblical proportions, and they were making their way up the side of the terracotta pots before launching themselves upwards like helicopters. I was fascinated.
I have seen flying ants before, but only airborne ones, and although I have heard of "Flying Ant Day" I didn't really know what it meant, so yesterday evening I looked it up. The ordinary ants I had noticed crawling about the patio over the last week or so are female workers who collect food for the whole colony. The flying ants are the males and young queens, who leave the nest en masse to mate, the queens then moving away to found their own colonies. This so-called "nuptial flight" is what I witnessed yesterday (although I absolutely didn't see any veils or bouquets!). Apparently there are likely to have been between 5,000 and 15,000 of them. I didn't count but there must have been thousands. Apparently, Flying Ant Day is thought to take place when a spell of wet weather is followed by hot, humid weather but we haven't had the wet spell and although it's been hot, it hasn't been particularly humid here so I suppose the ants just got fed up of waiting. It did occur to me that there was a time when I might have been freaked out by the sight of them, but I wasn't, I was inside the summerhouse and they were all outside, trying to fly away. I pictured myself watching with Tom Kitten in a few years time and explaining it to him.
Having said that, I would rather be watching butterflies!
See you soon.
Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x
I definitely prefer butterflies to flying ants any day. No peacocks here yet which is unusual. Maybe they’ve gone north this year. Lots of ants on the grass. You have to be careful where you step with bare feet because suddenly you have lots of ants climbing up your leg. Ugh! Non flying yet. Lovely photos. B x
ReplyDeleteWe obviously have an ants' nest under the patio and, ahem, I have been known to use a kettleful of boiling water in the past but they really haven't been a bother this year so I left them to it. If they'd tried to climb up my leg I would have declared war. Ugh indeed! x
DeleteNature is quite amazing. The more I learn, the more I'm in awe of what happens around us. Things that most people don't often think about. Ants are particularly fascinating, but unfortunately this summer they are trying to take over the house. Any little crack and they find their way in ... the kitchen, bathrooms, living room and most recently, our bedroom. No fun to wake up at 1 a.m. and feel an ant crawling across your lips. Why they even wanted to be in our bed is beyond me, but it meant hours of cleaning the next day trying to figure out where they were coming from. I wish they'd sprout wings and all fly away. HA! Happy Friday!
ReplyDeleteNo fun at all, Tammy - Yuck! Fortunately, none of our ants have made it into either the house or the summerhouse or I would have had to take action. x
DeleteFascinating isn't it. In the last couple of weeks there seem to have been more butterflies about thank goodness as they have seemed a bit thin on the ground. I can just imagine you with Tom Kitten in your summer house. x
ReplyDeleteI feel that it might be a good year for butterflies. I was out at a ruined abbey in the middle of nowhere last week and there was a buddleia which was covered in Peacocks, loads of them. I think this augurs well. x
DeleteWe had a couple of hours of rain yesterday evening and how welcome it was. The air is much more comfortable now. Have seen a few flying ants but not many and no peacock butterlies as yet. Good that you were protected in your summer house as the ants flew around:)
ReplyDeleteI think there was a here on Friday too, but we left home for the weekend just as it started. I'd like to see things green up a bit as everywhere is so dry and yellow. x
DeleteThy say you learn something new everyday and today I was blessed learning about flying ants. How wonderful to have watched such an interesting event from the safety of a Summer house. I haven't seen many butterflies around at all this year.
ReplyDeleteNo b! utterflies at all? I hope they are on their way. I didn't even realise that the flying ants were the same species as the creepy crawly ones until I looked it up last week, I thought they were a different breed entirely. x
DeleteIhave been waiting for our two seagulls to fall over, lol. They say that eating the flying ants makes them drunk.
ReplyDeleteBriony
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My husband grew up by the coast and he told me that the seagulls wheel around overhead on Flying Ant Day, feasting on them. I didn't see any seagulls here but I am hoping that the swifts and bats enjoyed them. x
DeleteThe same thing happened here this week. Like a silver mist they were, all rising into the air xx
ReplyDeleteI found them fascinating, although the scene on the patio floor was a bit like something out of a horror movie! I shall miss you, CT, you've taught me a lot. Take care. x
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