Swarms of flying ants were spotted across Huddersfield as the warm weather made a fleeting return.
Hot weather sees a natural - and potentially annoying - phenomenon for the ants known as nuptial flight.
And Sunday’s warm weather saw people in Holmfirth, Lindley and the Leeds Road area reporting huge swarms of the ants in the air.
Tom Booth messaged the Examiner saying: “Flying ants are taking over Huddersfield. Down next to Costa now. The sky is alive with them.”
Reporter Andrew Robinson also captured footage of them in Holmfirth while there were also reports of them in Lindley.
Nuptial flight is nothing sinister; it prevents inbreeding among ants and enables them to establish new colonies.
Ants play a crucial role in ecosystems: they aerate soil, help to recycle nutrients, improve garden fertility and control pests.
They also provide food for small amphibians and reptiles as well as birds including seagulls which become intoxicated from eating large quantities of them.
But if you’ve got winged ants invading your home you’ll want to put a stop to it as soon as possible.
These simple but effect measure will keep ants out of your home and control their numbers.
1. Spray the ants with dishwashing soap
Dishwashing soap is an effective agent against flying ants, as it attaches to their bodies and dehydrates them. Get yourself a spray bottle to catch the little creatures in flight and mix two generous squirts of dish washing liquid with water.
2. Catch them with sticky tape
Lure the little things in with a food source and place some tape as close as possible with the sticky side up.
3. Attack ants with an artificial sweetener
Certain types of sweeteners are very toxic for ants. For example, if you mix in the sweetener with apple juice, it forms a viscous paste that the ants will carry back to the colony. Once consumed there, it will kill off a portion of their population.
