Happy Flying Ant Day!
BBC should interrupt their TV broadcast across all channels to do a newsflash on Flying Ant Day
Flying ant day, y'all!
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! SAVE YOURSELVES!
Agh! Flying ants day.... Yuk
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
THEY'RE IN YOUR HAIR.
Flying ants are so adorable the way dozens of them will smash into your face and hair and down your throat and make you scream and scream.
It is like a disaster movie, but set in suburban London.
Flying Ant Day! Watch out people...
Flying Ant Day is a Cloverfield situation for pale Britons
Even pictures of sunsets on Instagram aren't safe.
People have been taking the appropriate precautions.
Not taking any chances this Flying Ant Day.
And preparing for the worst.
I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords (thanks @MarianneLevy) #flyingantday #traditionaltweet #sugarcaves
Flying Ant Day has interfered with people's WASHING. Is nothing safe?
I DETEST flying ant day!!! I hate it even more when I bring my washing in and three of the feckers are crawling around in my washing!!!
Some people were taking no prisoners.
Killed so many flying ants today, paused to think about the value of a life, then carried on killing. They were in my way.
Just been on a flying ant killing spree. Clumps of the buggers probably shagged out and dying all over our kitchen. #flyingantday
They have been described as "flying devils".
fucking flying ANTS, hate these fuckers. Aint seen these fuckers all year soon as the sun cums out these flying devils cum out ffs!
But for some, Flying Ant Day isn't what it used to be.
I always liked Flying Ant Day as a child, but I'm sure it was less commercial.
Flying Ant Day is just a hideous commercial exercise to make you buy more flying ants. #dontbefooled
Some people didn't even get sent a Flying Ant Day card :-(
Yesterday was Flying Ant Day and nobody sent me a card. #sad
But some people celebrated despite the carnage. A kind of Blitz spirit.
Everyone off out tonight on a massive fucking bender for flying ant day? Best day of the year. Best day of the year by a country mile.
But what is Flying Ant Day?
Several insect species, including termites and some bees, take part in what's called nuptial flights – an important part of their reproductive cycle.
The flying ants are a mixture of males and virgin queens taking the first step in founding a new colony. The ants take part in some "quick and violent mating" in the air during all this, which is necessary for the queen to successfully found a new colony, but also means the male flying ants die.
The whole process is very precarious: the ants have to wait for clear weather – rain is a problem when you're a flying ant – and new queens have a very high failure rate when establishing a new colony, which is why a colony can send out huge numbers of queens in its lifetime.
The queen's wings fall off once she's found somewhere to live, so the ants really do only fly around for a short time.
So the next time you see flying ants, that's what's going on.
And there isn't even a single Ant Day! That's a myth, according to a survey carried out every year.
Stay safe out there.
Joan Collins hates flying ant day.