A swarm of flying ants descended on Boston on Monday. Here's what it was

Though the humidity in the Boston area has significantly calmed down over the past few days, those trying to enjoy the weather on Monday night were in for a bug-filled nightmare.

This past Monday, hundreds of flying ants swarmed through the air, covering streets, cars and houses and leaving scattered carcasses behind them.

The phenomenon caused chaos for some, trapping people indoors, blocking visibility on the roads and swarming personal space. People on Reddit took to calling it the ant-pocalypse.

Why were there so many ants in Boston?

The flight of ants seen in Boston on Monday is called a nuptial flight, according to Emily Stolarski of Mass Wildlife, an event during the breeding period where winged females and males leave their colonies. After mating in the flight, female ants land to form new colonies, but the male ants are left behind to die.

Colonies can have anywhere from a few dozen to multiple millions of ants, meaning the total number of bugs in the sky Monday night may have easily been in the millions.

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Unfortunately for outdoors lovers, ant nuptial flights have no predicted schedule, but Stolarski explained that they typically occur in warmer weather.

"The nuptial flight typically takes place in the summer when the weather is hot and humid. Heat makes flying easier and freshly fallen rain makes the ground softer for mated queens to dig new nests," Stolarski said.

The good weather on Monday caused the ants to take off for the flight. The swarm only lasted a few hours, which Stolarski said is typical of ant nuptial flights.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Boston swarmed with flying ants. It's called a 'nuptial flight'