SHOPPERS in York were bombarded by swarms of flying ants in the city yesterday.

Pest control officers received many calls from York householders complaining of the ants in the streets outside their homes.

Richard Haswell, who works for the City of York Council pest control department, said: "The warm weather and humidity has exasperated the problem. But we do have this influx of flying ants every year.

"They are not dangerous or harmful, but they are a nuisance.

"Luckily no-one has contacted us with a problem inside their house. But we have had a lot of people complaining of them being on the streets.

"Yesterday (Tuesday) was just one of those days when they were all swarming and mating. By today the male ants and many of the female ones will be dying off and the problem should be eliminated.

"It is just a passing phenomena."

One resident said she had to dive into shops on two occasions to escape the flying ants. She said: "They were a nightmare in the city centre. They don't look like ants and they can be pretty scary when there are big clumps of them."