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Flying ants - fact file

Daily Mail Last updated at 00:00am on 29.07.04

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Only winged ants, which are born during the summer months, are fertile and most ‘worker’ ants will never reproduce.

After hatching they wait underground until the weather is hot enough before taking to the skies to mate.

Males form large swarms and attract the females — known as queens — to fertilise in mid-air.

After the mating ritual is complete, the males die and queen ants shed their wings as they mate only once in their lives, despite living up to 22 years.

Legend says that when flying ants swarm, a thunderstorm is approaching.

Ants use smell to communicate — giving out a horrid stink as a warning sign if they are threatened. Predators include frogs and swallows.

They often nest under paving slabs and are responsible for small heaps of soil or dirt appearing between the cracks, which they have pushed up from underground.