'Gross' swarm of flying ants in Stephenville captured on video

Imagine hearing screams, seeing an oncoming insect swarm, and then deciding to head right into the fray. That's the line of logic one Stephenville videographer took recently, to equal parts laughter and regret.

"It was kinda gross actually, because they were out there by the millions, they were absolutely everywhere," said Jon Myers.

The 'they' in question were carpenter ants — sometimes called 'emmets' in Newfoundland and Labrador — each between three to five centimetres long, filling the Sunday evening air as Myers was inside his apartment.

"I heard all these kids screaming, and I was like 'what's going on?' So I went out to the front road, and there was like 20 something kids just running down the road, and kids on their bikes, and there was this black kind of cloud in the sky, in back of them."

'I was absolutely covered'

Myers seized the opportunity, and his camera equipment, to capture the moment. But filming a swarm of flying bugs posed a few logistical problems.

"I was trying to grab my t-shirt to put over my face, and they were almost crawling up my nose. I was wearing shorts, and they were crawling up my shorts, legs and all that stuff... I was absolutely covered," he told CBC Radio's Corner Brook Morning Show.

"The best way I could actually explain it, it was like a snowstorm."

Flying hordes of carpenter ants are an annual occurrence, as kings and queens from different nests take to the air on particularly warm, muggy evenings to mate.

"They're harmless," said Lloyd Hollett, the director of the Newfoundland Insectarium, adding that doesn't mean the clouds of insects aren't intimidating.

"The only time they fly is when they mate." 

The males, smaller than the females, die soon after doing the deed, and the females land, lose their wings, and begin establishing new colonies. 

Myers isn't deterred from his close insect encounter, and hopes to better capture the experience next time.

"In the video, you don't get the feel for it, of actually seeing it... I've never seen it that bad."