Flying Ant Season Hits Brighton Hard
Flying ant season is in full swing across the UK, with Brighton emerging as a notorious hotspot. Mirror reporter Julia Banim visited the coastal city to witness the phenomenon, where residents describe apocalyptic scenes of swarming insects and 'drunk' seagulls wreaking havoc.
Between June and August, millions of winged ants take to the skies for mating flights. Queens fly high to find the strongest males, who die shortly after mating. The queens then chew off their own wings and burrow into the ground to start new colonies. While the event spans weeks, temperatures above 25°C—as recorded last Friday—can trigger concentrated surges.
Local Horror Stories
Scott Vincent, 40, told the Mirror of discovering a Thai-style fold-out bed covered in layers of flying ants. 'I lifted it up, and the entire thing was like a mattress within itself, like a template of the fold-out bed was just moving with flying ants. I ran inside straight away,' he said. Another time, he and a friend were swarmed while meeting at a train station, forcing them to flee to his car.
Scotty Bell, 31, bar manager at The Star and Garter pub, described having to barricade the premises despite sweltering heat. 'Flying ants love to linger by the windows. That means they're always going to come into the building. We've had to close the windows, close the front door, and just deal with very hot temperatures.' He recalled an 'obscene amount' of ants descending on a dinner party in nearby Lewes, creating a 'low hum' and a 'thick smog' approaching the house.
Drunk Seagulls Add to Mayhem
The ants release formic acid as a defense mechanism, which intoxicates seagulls that feast on them. The result: flocks of disoriented birds that become traffic hazards. Walking through Brighton, Banim observed excitable gulls darting across roads and diving near the seafront. Locals report that the mayhem peaks when ants settle on the pebble beach walls, attracting gulls that ignore traffic.
Jack Thompson, Wilder Communities Officer at Sussex Wildlife Trust, explained: 'They love taking the opportunity to have a bounty of food in terms of the ants. And they can become very hyper-focused on the feeding of ants. I think it is that frenzied behaviour when they are locked into the ants, which means they're not going being danger-averse at these sorts of times. So it can often lead to collisions with cars.'
Carmen Appich, a Hove resident in her 60s, noted that accidents involving seagulls spike during flying ant season. 'Seagulls ignore the traffic and walk out in front of cars. And it's as if they're drunk on these flying ants,' she said. She added that cyclists must be extra cautious, as gulls become less aware of their surroundings.
Ecological Impact and Decline
Herring gulls, distinguished by pink legs and white wing-tip 'mirrors', are the most commonly affected. Despite their intelligence, they become reckless when feeding. The species is on the UK's red list due to nesting habitat loss and food scarcity. Another victim is the common swift; Thompson recalled a summer when ant-obsessed swifts covered Hove Lawns, an unprecedented sight.
Scotty Bell warned that the beach is the most perilous area: 'That's when you get both of them. It's like being attacked. It's not particularly fun.'
Why Brighton Attracts Ants
Brighton's abundance of green spaces—from Hove Lawns to East Brighton Park—makes it ideal for queen ants to start colonies. Thompson explained: 'In places like Brighton, if there are the right conditions, if there is the right amount of green space available for those ants to thrive, then we're going to see larger amounts of ants on these particular days.' Warm, humid days trigger mass emergences of new queens and males for mating.
Despite the nuisance, flying ants are vital to ecosystems. Thompson stressed: 'Ants are integral to our ecosystems because of their ability to move nutrients across different places and help with those sorts of natural processes. So if they're impacting ants, then it's going to impact the wider biodiversity as well.' Climate change poses a threat to these insects, with potential cascading effects on biodiversity.
