Has anyone seen Myrmica flying yet?

[Wood~Ant]

While Jenant was returning from a visit to her dentist today, bombing back up the road on her bike, she thought she saw a Myrmica alate on her leg; but as she couldn't stop, when she looked again a few minutes later it had gone.

Normally during August I see lots of Lasius and Myrmica mating flights, but although the L. flavus and L. niger have had their bigs flights, neither Jen or I have yet witnessed any Myrmica flying, which is rather frustrating
So has anyone in Britain seen anything of these elusive little scarlet pimpernels flying yet?

[Kyle]

one nest near where I live is now emtpy of all alates but all others(2) are still full of them, so its still just a waiting game with them.

[Zarbi]

Can't say that I've seen them yet either, but surely they must have happened by now

[ross]

Yes, I saw some flying on the same day as the Lasius were and also a few days later a few mile away. They are a lot harder to catch though and don't seem to have a bigger flight as Lasius do. Myrmica seem to land on you or somewhere and take back off straight away were as Lasius seem to plod on the floor and thats it for them.

[Zarbi]

That's it then, I missed them

[Wood~Ant]

I've actually found the best way to find newly mated Myrmica queens after their nuptial flights is this.

Be prepared to sit patiently for several hours in an area where you know they nest in abundance. You will often see workers running about excitedly and searching, as any dead or dying male ants they find are very rapidly taken back to the nest as food.
If they find any young mated queens, these too are often dragged back, especially if they are related to the workers (I.e. sisters or cousins) as Myrmica are polygynous as you may know.

It is a simple matter to collect new queens which have shed their wings as they wander about looking for nest sites, or pick up ones which are being carried off by worker ants.
If the workers show no obvious signs of hostility to the new queens, then you can even collect a few of these, or collect some brood from an already established nest. As long as you don't take too much from one nest, it will not harm it, so only take a small amount from any nest as you can do this with other nests nearby to increase your brood.
New queens will accept brood, and this will give them a head start to founding a colony

[tomorrownight]

any signs of M. Rubra this year? I've found a few alates in nests I monitor but then again I'm still finding a couple of alates in a L.Niger nest I've been watching! don't understand that!