A common misconception about ants is that winged ants are a species separate from all other ants. Every type of ant has reproductive swarmers (or winged ants) in it’s colony and every ant colony “swarms” once a year. Winged ants can be carpenter ants, pavement ants, moisture ants, cornfield ants etc. An ant swarm is a collection of the reproductive males and females only (reproductives are the only ants with wings in a colony). After mating, the males drop dead and the females fly on to try and establish new colonies.