Ant hunting abroad

[Deleted]

Hi

I am going away on holiday to Turkey at the end of June, are there any species of ants that may be having a nuptial flight around that time? As I hope to bring some back over to the UK.

Also if I do manage to catch some what do I do about getting them through customs?

Thanks, Adam

[UKantz]

Well I'm not realy sure what species live in Turkey, but if you could find out this graph will tell you what times their nuptial flight is.

www.ameisenhaltung.de/schwarmflug/

As for getting them through customs, last time I went to Spain I caught a few Messor Barbarus queens and just put them in the suitcase and they got through fine.

[Wood~Ant]

Very hard to what ant species might be flying in Turkey around June, but as the country is in the Mediterranean basin it can get fairly hot. From what I know from my contacts in that region, some ants may fly if the humidity is high enough in late June; but most fly from July to October.
Messor species for instance are always late fliers and mate from the end of September well into October.

Just keep your eyes open Adam and hope for the best while you're out there on holiday. 

[Deleted]

Thank you both for the advise and quick reply .

I will do some research on the local species and thanks for that link UKants, I have been looking for something like this for a while.