Flying ants are not a separate species. They are the winged reproductives — young queens and males — that every mature ant colony releases for a few days a year to mate, which is why they appear in a sudden swarm and then vanish. Killing the swarm does nothing to the nest that produced it.
Before you treat anything, confirm they are ants and not termites. Ants have a sharply pinched waist, elbowed antennae, and front wings noticeably longer than the back pair. Termite swarmers have a straight waist, straight beaded antennae, and four wings of equal length. That difference decides whether this is a nuisance or a structural problem.
Fruit flies, flying termites, and – basically- a colony in your house is a total night mare. Flying bugs and other flying insects can be a nuisance if you cant control the infestation. These winged ants can form an ant colony in your home without you realizing it if you are not careful.
Luckily, you can kill infestation before the problem gets worse. Winged ants are not dangerous and hold no threat to humans, however they can become frustrating. So, now the question is how do you eliminate flying ants from your home?
If you are looking for a way to kill flying ants and get rid of infestation as soon as possible, then you have come to the right place.
In this article we teach you how to identify different ant infestation species, where flying ants live, how to get the right ant bait, and how to get rid of other flying insects as well in your home. Let’s get started!
What is a Flying Ant?
First and foremost, we must identify what this bug is and how it can be identified as different from worker ants, worker ants, pharaoh ants, and other insects. Flying ants are not a unique type of ant species.
However, they are male and female ants that are able to reproduce. Male flying ants like to stay in their nests until mating season.
What Are Flying Ants Mistaken For?
People often make the mistake of mistaking flying ants for their passive cousin, the common housefly. But at just a mere glance, that’s not always an easy call to distinguish between them.
Nonetheless, there are a few key pointers to identify these insects apart: size and antennae length, each species giving off different but recognisable characteristics!
While both take flight, leaving us mortals standing on the ground wondering what in the world was just buzzing around above us, flying ants (or formally known as alates) stand out with their massive wingspan that gives them quite a distinctive edge over other bugs.
Their feathered antenne add another layer of fine detail that serves to make for easy identification among charades of these tiny barely visible creatures.
What do they look like?
There are a few distinct characteristics in flying ants that will help you identify them from others.
People confuse flying ants with other ants, but they are totally different. Flying ants have two wings on the side of their bodies.
A flying ants front wings are not the same length as their back wings, because they are longer. Flying ants also have smaller waists similar to their land cousins.
The flying ant also has a bent antennae which makes them different. Flying ants can have a color range of black to red or brown.
Flying Ant Life Cycle
A flying ant’s lifecycle begins as an egg within an entire colony. Ant eggs are soft, tiny, and oval. Not all eggs become adults, some are eaten by other crawling ants inside a new colony.
The process of development to a full blown adult flying ant takes a few weeks to a month. This will depend on the species and the environment of an entire colony.
Queen ants are just female ants that are fed more as larvae. Queen ants are larger in size and lay all their eggs within their new colonies.
A new ant colony can contain over a million other ant species. Queens have wings so that they can find male ants.
The Queen can live fore more than 10 years if they live under the right conditions. Males on the other hand are different.
Males die shortly after they have mated with the queen, which is usually two days after their nuptial flight.
What are Carpenter Ants?
Carpenter ants are a type of winged ant that is commonly found in North America.
These ants are a nuisance because they often infest homes and cause damage to wood structures.
Carpenter ants are Black or red and can be up to ½ inch in length. Winged ants are only produced by the colony when it is ready to mate.
Once winged Carpenter ants mate, they leave the colony to start their own. Winged ants are attracted to lights, so you may see them flying around your home at night.
If you have winged ants infestation, the best way to get rid of them is to kill the flying ants. This will stop the infestation from spreading and eventually rid your home of these pests.
Do flying Ants Bite?
Flying ants are a common nuisance during the summer months. While they are not aggressive, flying ants can be a sign of an ant infestation.
If you see flying ants in your home, it’s important to take steps to get rid of them as soon as possible.
The best way to kill flying ants is to use an insecticide spray. However, if you have children or pets, you may want to consider using a natural insecticide such as diatomaceous earth.
Once you have killed the flying ants, you need to find the nest and destroy it. This will stop the colony from producing more flying ants.
You can usually find the nest by following the trail of flying ants back to their source. If you can’t find the nest, you may need to call pest control companies.
Additionally, there are some ant species like fire ants or a worker ant, which are more likely to cause an ant problem and bite.
Fire ants though small, are the species of all the bugs that you should steer clear from as compared to flying ants. Prevent flying ants inside your house always.
Different Types of Flying Ants
There are different kinds of flying ants. Not all ants fly, there are also some ants that don’t. Here are a few other types of flying ants that you should be aware of:
Flying carpenter ants
If you see flying carpenter ants around your home, make sure that you contact a pest control industry right away.
While these types of ants do not eat wood, but they do borrow into the wood while they make their nests. Treating the flying bug swarm as early as you can to get rid of flying ants will be beneficial.
If you do not treat the bug problem right away, it could cause a lot of damage to your home if it is made out of wood.
Flying red ants
If you see a lot of red ants that are flying around in your house, it’s likely that you could be dealing with red ants.
The only difference of red ants from fire ants, is that they do not bite. They are common pests found in some areas of the United States.
Flying fire ants
Flying fire ants are insects that are most common in North America.
They are highly aggressive and can pack a very painful sting if you get bitten. Make sure to get rid of flying ants as soon as possible.
Black Flying Ants
While these types of flying ants pose no threat to humans, they are quite common in kitchens in search for greasy or sweet food.
A new colony can grow in your house somewhere, if ants pick on food you have left on your counter. Make sure to get rid of flying ants with the help of a pest control company.
Flying ants Vs. Termites
Knowing the difference between termites and flying ants can be beneficial to you. While flying ants can be annoying at times, termite infestation can cause serious damage to your home.
To find out what kind of insects you are dealing with, there are a few ways that you can differentiate one from the other.
First, you need to take a look at their sprouted wings. Both flying ants and termites have two sets of wings.
However, the wings on a termite are of equal length while the flying ants have a pinched waist. This means that the abdomen of a flying bugs is very thin. A termite has a straight antennae and body.
What Causes Flying Ants to Enter Your Home
Flying ants are not a separate insect, and they are not termites. They are the winged reproductive caste — young queens and males — that an established colony produces once it is big enough to send out founders. Colonies release them on warm, humid, still days, often just after rain, which is why a whole neighbourhood can see a swarm on the same afternoon.
They get indoors the way any small insect does: gaps around window frames, a worn door sweep, utility penetrations, torn screens. Two things make a house more attractive — light at dusk, and accessible sugar, which is also why sweet baits work on them. Once inside they are hunting for a mate and a nest site, not for your kitchen, so a swarm normally disperses or dies within a day or two.
A queen that founds a colony successfully lays a first small batch of eggs, and development from egg to adult takes weeks and varies with species and temperature — much the same pattern as how long moth eggs take to hatch. If ants keep appearing indoors rather than in one burst, the nest is already in or against the structure. That is a different problem from a swarm, and the case where pest control is worth calling.
How to Get rid of Flying Ants
Flying ants are a common summertime nuisance. While they pose no threat to humans, their sheer numbers can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are a few simple steps you can take to get rid of flying ants for good.
First, it’s important to identify where the ants are coming from. If you see a trail of ants leading to a crack in your foundation or an open window, seal up the opening to prevent more ants from getting inside.
You should also check for food sources that might be attracting ants, such as spilled sugar or crumbs.
Once you’ve eliminated the source of the problem, clean the area thoroughly with soapy water to remove any lingering scent trails that might attract more bugs.
Next, it’s time to target the flying bugs themselves. A variety of home remedy for flying ants as well as flying ant killer options are available specifically to kill flying ants, or you can use a more general-purpose insecticide if desired.
Be sure to follow the directions on the packaging carefully, and apply the insecticide liberally around any areas where you’ve seen flying ants swarming.
In most cases, this will be enough to kill all the ants and eliminate flying ants.
Can Flying Ants Cause Damage?
The winged ants themselves cause no damage. They do not sting, they do not chew wood, and they do not eat stored food. A swarm is a nuisance that ends on its own, and the insects do not pose a danger to people or pets.
What matters is which species swarmed. If the alates came from a carpenter ant colony, that colony does excavate wood — it hollows galleries in damp or already-damaged timber to nest in. Carpenter ants do not eat wood the way termites do, so the damage is slower and more localised, but a mature nest in a joist or window frame is a genuine structural issue. An indoor insect problem that recurs is worth treating at the source rather than at the swarm.
That distinction is the whole reason identification matters. Winged ants out of a lawn nest need no treatment at all. Winged ants coming out of a wall void mean there is a nest inside the wall, and a non-toxic treatment aimed at the colony is the right response — not a spray aimed at the flying insects in the room.
Why Do Flying Ants Exist?
Every ant colony is one extended family: one or more egg-laying queens, sterile female workers, and — once the colony is mature enough to afford it — a batch of winged males and females whose only job is to leave and reproduce. Those winged individuals are called alates.
They are produced deliberately, in a batch, and held until conditions are right. After mating, the males die within days. A mated female lands, breaks off her own wings, finds a cavity in soil or wood, and lays the first eggs of a new colony. The overwhelming majority never get that far — most are eaten within hours, which is exactly why a colony releases so many at once.
FAQs
How Long Do Flying Ants Stay Around?
The swarm itself is usually over in a day or two. Males die shortly after mating, and unmated alates die within a few days.
The mated queens are the exception, and they are the reason the swarm happens at all. A queen that successfully founds a colony can live for years — in several common species well over a decade — laying eggs the whole time. But she does that underground or inside a cavity, without wings, and she never flies again.
Why Do I Have Flying Ants in My House?
A single indoor swarm usually means an outdoor colony released its alates and some drifted in through a gap, pulled toward indoor light. Sticky indoor traps will clear the ones already inside, and the rest of the swarm dies off on its own.
Repeated indoor swarms mean something different: a colony nesting in or under the structure — a wall void, under flooring, behind trim, or in damp timber. Winged ants indoors during cold months are the strongest signal of all, because nothing outdoors is swarming then, so they can only have come from inside.
Working out what you actually have is the first step, the same as with any other household insect.
Are Flying Ants Attracted to Light?
Ever wondered why flying ants seem to be drawn, like a moth to a flame, to the lights in your home? It turns out that flying ants are naturally attracted to bright, open sources of light, such as outdoor porch lights and indoor lamps. This phenomena is due to flying ant’s poor navigational skills.
The bright light source serves as their beacon when attempting navigation at night – so they can easily find their way home! However, flying ant behavior is complex and there may be other factors influencing the attraction too. So although flying ants may not be able to resist the glow of your lamp, it’s best not to get too comfortable with them around!
Natural Remedies: Flying Ant Extermination
The natural way to kill flying bugs may not cause harm to the humans, but may protect your pets and the environment if you use them. A few years ago it was discovered the ant exterminators were cheaper and faster than the ant exterminators.
Natural remedies, however, have less effective effectiveness at controlling bugs than zapping or insecticides.
Learn more about flying ant removal by following this simple guide.
Create Flying Ant Traps Using Borax and Sugar
Borax works as a slow-acting stomach poison, and slow is the point. Mixed into a sweet bait, foragers carry it back and share it around the colony before it takes effect, so it reaches the queen. A fast-acting spray only kills the ants you can already see.
Mix roughly one part borax to three parts sugar with just enough warm water to make a syrup, and put it on a scrap of card beside the trail rather than directly on it. Expect it to take several days to work through the colony.
Borax is not a carcinogen — but it is not harmless either. It is toxic if swallowed in quantity and is a reproductive toxicant at high doses. Keep it well away from children and pets, and do not use it on food-preparation surfaces.
Dish Soap
Using dishwashing soap is enough to spray the insecticide on the bugs. Dishwashing soap dries onto the body and is able to hydrate the organism and then kills the organism. All the sprays needed are dish soap and water. The advantage of spraying is that they are safe for use at home and can be used at anytime without concern for kids and their pets.
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