Ant swarms

[Manda_Rae]

What is going on in my garden in several spots there are little swarms of regular ants and winged ants!

 

[Manda_Rae]

And now with the sun gone down they all disappeared

 

[flowerbug]

And now with the sun gone down they all disappeared

that is how they reproduce. the flying ones are the male and female ants that will fly and mate and then after mating the male will die and the female will land and then find a new nesting site and start a new anthive.

normally when you see ants crawling around on the ground you are only seeing the female worker ants. you only will see the winged immature ants if you dig up the hive sometime before they have a mating flight.

 

[Manda_Rae]

that is how they reproduce. the flying ones are the male and female ants that will fly and mate and then after mating the male will die and the female will land and then find a new nesting site and start a new anthive.

normally when you see ants crawling around on the ground you are only seeing the female worker ants. you only will see the winged immature ants if you dig up the hive sometime before they have a mating flight.

It was crazy. They would swarm in different parts of the garden m, disappear then swarm on another side. Then once the sun went down they all disappeared

 

[flowerbug]

It was crazy. They would swarm in different parts of the garden m, disappear then swarm on another side. Then once the sun went down they all disappeared

each swarm would likely have been from a different anthive. but it is common that when the weather and time is right that you will have many different anthives have their mating flights at the same time just because of how the signals are similar even for the different kinds of ants. in terms of survival the more mating flights that happen at the same time the more chances are at least some of them will not be eaten by predators (birds and sometimes bats).