Flying bug ID.

[BTLowry]

Those don't look like flying ants, those look like some type of wasp, by the same of the rear end of the thing, looks like it has a stinger on the back end, ants don't.
I have seen flying ants most years that we get rain in the spring. They will come out right after a rain and be all over the place. Then they are only around for a day or two, then they are gone. You will sometimes see the flying ants crawling around a few days after there were a bunch of them flying around. When you see them days after they were flying, you will will notice their wings look like they have been cut off, near the base. I assume other ants bite their wings off, after they have flow to their new home.

What you have, is definitely some type of small wasp or bee. I know we have native bees, the ones I have seen look like small wasps to me, they don't look like the European honey bees, that everybody calls bees.

Please explain where the stinger on an ant is located?
I always thought they were stinging with their tail end

[RifleBowPistol]

Please explain where the stinger on an ant is located?
I always thought they were stinging with their tail end

Ants don't have stingers, that I know of. Ants bite, with jaws, to the best of my knowledge. The bugs White Falcon posted pictures of, look like they have a stinger. Because of that, I decided they could not be an ant.
But I started trying to figure out what type of ant, it is that lives in mesquite trees in south Texas, and found numerous pictures of flying carpenter ants. They look identical to the pictures that White Falcon posted. I found numerous pictures of carpenter ants, with wings, that also look like they have a stinger on the rear end of what is being called an ant.

Everything I have ever known to be an ant, does not have a stinger, only jaws, that they bite with. Those pictures of carpenter ants, sure look like they have a stinger on the rear end of their bodies. Don't know if that is actually a stinger or not, I would guess, that bug is some type of a wasp and not an ant. But I found numerous pictures that say that, wasp looking thing is an ant.


After 48 years, I finally know what type of ant it was that used to bite the crap out of me, when I would climb mesquite trees, as a kid. They are Mexican Elongated twig ants. Those things, make fire ant bites seem very mild.

[Katch66]

Please explain where the stinger on an ant is located?
I always thought they were stinging with their tail end

^^^This, ants sting.