Flying Ants plague Dublin!

vinnyfitz

What's with the sudden infestation by flying ants of our city this afternoon? I've never seen the like of it!

Sleipnir

yeah they are everywhere.

Club must have just closed.

impr0v

Protest at poor public transport.

beer enigma

All over Cork too.......war or the worlds

BaZmO*

They just come out once a year as far as I know.

I remember a few years back the house that I was renting was infested with them, or at least the bathroom was. They used to crawl out from the corner of the bath beside the taps where it butted it against the wall. There was thousands of them. The whole side of the bath was covered in them. And after you'd clean them up grabbing handfuls at a time, you would come back an hour later and there would be just as many. Although I didn't have as many as my neighbour. Apparently there was so many in his bathroom that the whole shower tray and two sides of the shower enclosure were covered in the little feckers. And if that's not bad enough, they were dropping off the ceiling too!! Weird thing is that the infestation only lasted a couple of days!!

B.

Tommy Vercetti

could be the heat and humidity over the last couple of days, either that or they're just here on a short midweek break

FX Meister

Yeah they only come out once a year, we have them in the path out the front of the house, they never come inside though. Its a pain in the ass walking in the gate for a day or two but I'm not going to kill them over it.

robbie1876

I've been battling them in my house for last few days too. Thankfully they seem to be almost gone now. Just used that poison ant food stuff and it seems to have done the trick.

Superman

ah jaysus there everywhere!!

Dub13

Is it just me or is this problem getting worse...I cant remember it being a problem when I was young.

beer enigma

If you have one of these on your car, you could always detach it & clear the ants !!


http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9812/11/flame.thrower.car/

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Crime-obsessed South Africans have a powerful new weapon with which to stop likely criminals: the car flamethrower.

Casting a man-high fireball, reportedly with no damage to the paint, the Blaster has been placed on 25 South African vehicles since its introduction last month.

At 3,900 rand ($655), it offers a cheap, dramatic defense against carjackers. It has yet to be deemed illegal.

South African courts allow killing if convinced that it's in self-defense. The defense is not unheard of. In last year's 13,000 carjackings, criminals often brandished weapons or used them with little provocation.

The Blaster squirts liquefied gas from a bottle in the automobile's trunk through two nozzles, located under the front doors. The gas is then ignited by an electric spark, with fiery consequences.

Both sides flame at the same time, regardless of whether the attack is coming from just one side of the vehicle, or whether passersby are on the other side. But the breadth and depth of blast can be modified according to individual preference.

Dont be at yourself

Yep, it's crazy. I thought the soil in my garden was moving, but it turns out there was just a gajillion ants.

eth0_

WHAT? I'm scared to leave work now!
Can't see any out the window (i'm in the IFSC). Are they around the city centre?

Sleipnir

Originally posted by eth0_
WHAT? I'm scared to leave work now!
Can't see any out the window (i'm in the IFSC). Are they around the city centre?

OH.
MY
GOD!
THEY'RE EVERWHERE.
QUICK, WE MUST FLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!!

eirebhoy

Send in the seagulls!!!

BaZmO*

That's really weird, I just got off the phone to a friend and just out of the blue he said,
"What's the story with all these bloody flying ants???"
He was just after pulling into his driveway he noticed hundreds of the little feckers all over his and his neighbour's house. I never even mentioned it to him before he said anything.

And as my friend lives close enough to where I work, I just had a look out the window and sure enough there's a few flying ants on the cars outside!

B.

Sleipnir

"And I for one, wecome our new ant-overlords and would just like to mention that as a well respected member of the community I would be useful rounding up people to work in their underground sugar caves"

WetDaddy

Not sure if anyone's interested, but the reason that they're "everywhere" is that it's mating season.

For ants, that is...

The queen has wings all the time (I think...). During mating season, the males grow wings. The queen, who's much stronger than the males, flies as high as possible. The males then all swarm after her, most of them dying along the way.

The strongest male is the one that catches her and has his way. Romantic, isn't it?

Don't try doing this with women in Temple Bar though, it tends not to work...

...Uhhh... Apparently...

vinnyfitz

I can tell you it's not much fun cycling through them
- even before I read Deathfunk's contribution:eek:

DeVore

I for one welcome our ant overlords! [1]


DeV.
[1] YES!!! I never thought I'd seriously get that line in.... can anyone name the source (for, um, no points).

RobertFoster

Originally posted by DeVore
I for one welcome out ant overlords! [1]


DeV.
[1] YES!!! I never thought I'd seriously get that line in.... can anyone name the source (for, um, no points).

Kent Brockman of course...

BaZmO*

Does that mean that all we have to do is look out for a fairly biggish ant flying around with a crown on her head being followed by a load of drone ants and kill her so this won't happen again?

Where's me gun???


LOL at Sleipnir!!

They just mentioned it on the news, so it must be a farily big invasion!

Sleipnir

IT'S IN REVELATIONS PEOPLE!

Dont be at yourself

I for one welcome our new insect ov....


Oh, it's already been done SEVERAL MILLION TIMES IN THIS VERY THREAD.

FX Meister

Kenty Brockulator, Shelbyville News

Tazzle

A sure solution to dramatically reduce the mass swarming that can occur indoors. Hoover.

Superman

Can't see any out the window (i'm in the IFSC). Are they around the city centre?

Don't worry i'm sure the un-natural surroundings of the IFSC will keep them at bay!

Hal1

Yep, I cant go out the me garden without those lil cúnts surrounding me. And to top it all off I got lil puppy cúnts everywhere too (thank god they dont have wings ;D).

Flukey

You always get a few evenings around July and August when they all come out simultaneously everywhere. It is no real harm and it is only on 2 or 3 evenings in the whole year. Enjoy the spectacle.

fizzynicenice

little feckers just wont fúck off!!
i'm gonna go ape shít with a million cans of raid and end the turmoil

deecom

Bloody unreal those little sh1ts can not belive there are so many tbh.
Hope the rain puts them off, or they go home.:)

elivsvonchiaing

Haven't seen any yet - I used to be plagued by them (abroad) - the horrible ****ers would fly into my flat and shed their wings on the bathroom tiles - then crawl away -hope this isn't the same species we have here. Locally you could get Raid (pointless) or Baygon. Baygon was not approved by the FDA - which convinced me this was the toxic **** needed to kill the ****ers.

I've never looked but can we buy Baygon here?

Flukey

No matter how many you kill, there will always be more. They come out simultaneously all over the place, which in itself is an incredible thing, so there are too many to try and kill. A bit like King Canute and the tide.

cormie

Originally posted by FX Meister
Yeah they only come out once a year, we have them in the path out the front of the house, they never come inside though. Its a pain in the ass walking in the gate for a day or two but I'm not going to kill them over it.

Now theres a decent chap.

Why would you kill them? They aren't doing any harm. They simply share the same habitat as we do. If they are no threat leave them be. I hope you all dodge snails on wet days too. I walk in the middle of the road to save the lil things.

Humans should be the species you should all be looking to kill. We are the worst thing to happen to Earth. Look at what we have done. The state of the place. The next time you are driving through an area with fields on either side and road a few miles ahead of you and behind you. Just imagine what the same area would be like without the road, without the cars.. Just you and a gal or something. Humans=boo

elivsvonchiaing

I never killed anything since I was about 12 - fishing seeing the poor bloody fish etc. What got the bloodlust going again was that I arrived for a new job on a Thursday (evening) didn't have to work on Friday - Had breakfast - left the breakfast cereal open on the counter - we do that here - well I used to - made a brief introduction in work which I was starting Monday - did some sightseeing - and went home about 16:00 - There was a seven lane highway of ants going to from the packet of breakfast cereal - my issue was not about how much they had eaten (25g tops).

I thus became a killer (again).

I have calmed down since returning - though the flying ants - Baygon could still be an option.

Agent Smith

there EVERYWHERE here in killiney,

munkeehaven

well be thankful you dont live in africa or india or wherever. we have it easy, at least we don't have to think about malaria everytime some creepy crawly bites us. anyway, i quite like ants, i'm getting a tattoo of one in late august.

robbie1876

Originally posted by munkeehaven
anyway, i quite like ants, i'm getting a tattoo of one in late august.

:eek: man, that will be one ugly ass tattoo! ants are hideous looking things. Would you not get something cuter like a dragonfly or something?

MadsL

i'm getting a tattoo of one in late august

Do they look different in August too?

munkeehaven

lol....aactually i have designed it myself, i'd scan the design but my scanner is phucked....tatt's dont cost more if they are your own design do they?

elivsvonchiaing

Humans should be the species you should all be looking to kill. We are the worst thing to happen to Earth. Look at what we have done. The state of the place. The next time you are driving through an area with fields on either side and road a few miles ahead of you and behind you. Just imagine what the same area would be like without the road, without the cars.. Just you and a gal or something. Humans=boo

Nature has a remedy for this - natural selection - if we are too stupid not to realise what is going on - we become extinct ourselves - the fact that we may (not by design) affect or even perpetrate extinction of a species is truly part of the process.

I'm sure during the -er Jurrassic period? (ok I saw jurassic park and I'm totally ignorant) T-Rex and Gigantosaurus(Jurrassic?) ate various species to extinction. (ok I'm not so sure - but will get plenty of flames - hopefully).

So don't feel guilty about being human - you'll be extinct in a matter of time anyhow.

Thank **** I'm not human! :-) Haven't got an oil change in ages though - Jaysus!

munkeehaven

i dont mind being human, but i wouldn't mind having wings.....

elivsvonchiaing

A prehensile tail would be nice too. (Would have been even more useful before the smoking ban (for smokers).

Also fidelity - Mental note - stop dating Irish Women.

mad m

Fcuk that as i write this two of those ants where crawling around on my kitchen floor now they are Dead ants dead ants....ok a little pun at the pink panther but they were big ants......only hope now is that they came in when door was open and not a nest anywhere in house...........EEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!

tba

I remember something like this happening about a decade ago, the reason then was that trade winds had blown the feckers in to the country, they all died of the cold in a few hours, except the ones with sweaters on of course.

Shad0r

Once every four years for about two weeks in March where I live at the moment (Canadian Rockies) they get something that sounds like that but with moths.

Apparently there are so many of them everywhere that you can barely see or breath through an open mouth when your outside.

Some sort of natural cycle or something....

BrookieD

I was in the Hospice in Harolds Cross yesterday and went outside for a drink with my granddad who was in there resting, when i looked at the ground in the garden there wee hundreds of these buggers everywhere, gits

i thought they hospice might get some sort of control over these as the paitents would not be relaxed with these insects all over the place.
D

jor el

Can't say I've noticed any of them here in Limerick, prolly afraid they'll get stabbed :eek:

Sleipnir

Originally posted by BrookieD
i thought they hospice might get some sort of control over these as the paitents would not be relaxed with these insects all over the place.
D

Ha! Well it's not like the ants advertised their intentions in The Times for a week.

How would you go about controlling 1 million ants fly around? Big nets?

Third_Echelon

apparently you can get a device that sends out a high pitched whistle that only ants and insects can hear.. its a bit like a dog whistle i.e. humans cant hear it as its outside our ears frequency...

Its a bit like kryptonite to ants and they hate it and dont come near the place...

I remember we had a few of these things at home for mice... never seen them again...

some of the devices have various frequencies for insects, rodents etc...

they dont get killed, your house doesnt get mobbed!!

Civilian_Target

Nippon is the answer. It's a poison, but what it does is it attracts the ants to come and collect it, from miles around, so wherever you put it will be swarming for a few hours. The ants collect it, take it back to the hive (or wherever ants gather) and it poisons the hive, and they all die and don't come back (for a good while anyway).