Flying ants

There are winged ants by one of the garden arches. They are common garden ants, the sort that get everywhere and which can be a pest in the house.

When I was a child in Kent the advent of large flying ants always seemed to coincide with childhood ailments involving high temperature, headache and sore throat. For years I associated the nuptial flight of the ants with nightmarish restless days in my hot sickbed.

I still don't like seeing the large winged wood ants. The small ants today merely evoked curiosity and a slight revulsion, much as I admire their communal organisation, particularly in the face of danger to the colony.