https://youtu.be/lS88dwfBWA8
This hot wave has brought out the carpenter ants in droves and the skies are swarming. Carpenter ants are social insects that live in large colonies of workers, males and queens. Commonly, the carpenter ants that you encountered in the home are the workers and are wingless foragers of food. Worker ants cannot fly and only exist to work. They deal with the daily operations in the nest such as building and repairing the nest, feeding and defence the colony, care for the queen. Carpenter ant queens are as the word states the queen on the colony. The queen lays special brood that are winged male and female, these reproductives are the ones you see this time of year and early summer. They emerge and swarm mating during their nuptial flights. Those females that have successfully mated land and then shed off their wings and search for a suitable location to start new colonies. The males having done their part and well, live until they die happy.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/flying-ants-randy-bilesky?published=u