Was walking on our town beach (on Cape Cod bay) this morning as the tide was coming in. I first noticed masses of dead and dying flying ants washing up at the wave-line, along with an occasional lady bug. Then I noticed the first dead and struggling honey bees. I started to gather up the live honeybees which I put on rocks high up the beach to dry off. Some were Italians and some were black carniolans, so not even bees from the same hives. This went on for about 3/4 of a mile. Honeybees were few compared to the tens of thousands of ants. The beach is a spit that juts out into the bay, so the closest anyone with a hive could have been was 1/3 to 1/2 a mile away. I am guessing that there was an off-shore wind that blew all of these insects out to sea and left them in the morning fog bank just off shore, where they got disoriented and fell in the water. It sure was an odd and unexpected sight, though! Interestingly, a few had milkweed pollenia stuck to their feet.
That does sound strange.
Did the ants have wings.
Was there possibly a large wave that came in and washed out a hive and the ant nests in the rocks.
What type of ant?
Jim
Small, black, winged ants. I have seen carpenter ants 'swarm' large numbers of winged ants. I don't think that the ants (and certainly not the bees) came from the beach itself. The tide was really low, so the nearest rocks were 100 feet away.