Gigantic 50-mile-wide swarm of flying ants spotted over Ireland, UK

A gigantic 50-mile-wide swarm of flying ants has been spotted from space over the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Sharing a disturbing radar image, the UK met office has warned that Ireland may come under attack from a plague of flying ants in few weeks.

In a tweet, the met office said, “During the summer ants can take to the skies in a mass emergence usually on warm, humid and windless days.”

It’s not raining in London, Kent or Sussex, but our radar says otherwise…📡

The radar is actually picking up a swarm of #flyingants across the southeast 🐜

During the summer ants can take to the skies in a mass emergence usually on warm, humid and windless days #flyingantday pic.twitter.com/aMF6RxR943

— Met Office (@metoffice) July 17, 2020

Meteorologists initially assumed the giant cloud showing on satellite pictures was a moving rain cloud. However, on closer inspection, it proved to be a giant group of the flying insects.

A spokesman for the met office said there were likely to be thousands of ants within the swarm.

Something of an annual occurrence, flying ant day tends to take place over several weeks rather than any one 24-hour period, Irish post reported.

It comes during the summer, when ants venture from the nest to find other colonies to mate with.

Traditionally, this period occurs when a spell of wet weather is quickly followed up by humid and sunny conditions.

Ireland could be facing a lengthy spell in the company of these winged insects, with experts predicting that flying ants could stay in the region until late August.