I thought that the ants had already done their nuptial flight at the start of this month but apparently I was wrong!! I went out into the back garden to do my rounds, as I usually do, and I was shocked to see one of the lavender plants covered in ants. The ants like to live in the back flower box under the lavender for the most part, but they seemed to relocate several times during the Summer. I reckon they moved around depending on whether or not there were aphids nearby that they could farm. And yes, ants actually do farm aphids!!

Anyway, it turns out the ants were having their nuptial flight which happens once a year where virgin ants mate with male ants to start a new colony. Plenty of other insects have their own nuptial flights, too. Last year or the year before we witnessed our compost bin fill with ants during their nuptial flight so I assumed that this year would be the same. I guess I was wrong about the location! It was crazy and cool to see all of the ants flying and crawling around. Even the spiders were psyched about it because they got to eat really well!