Jo-Wilfried Tsonga complains insects were ‘in my nose, in my hair’ while Sam Querrey says he raised problem with umpire

Swarms of flying ants have invaded Wimbledon, distracting players who were forced to swat them away.

American Sam Querrey, the No 24 seed, dropped a set as the insects plagued Court 18, where he eventually saw off the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in four sets. “If I had won that set, it probably wouldn’t have bugged as much,” he said.

“Never seen that before. Luckily it was 30 or 45 minutes. I don’t know what it was, but they seemed to kind of go away after a while. If it had got much worse, I almost wanted to stop because they were hitting you in the face when you were trying to hit balls. All over the place.”

He said he raised it with the umpire: “He kind of laughed. ‘The flowers, the bugs, they’re happy.’ Something like that. I don’t know what he said. He kind of shrugged it off. Like, these are just bugs, we’re going to play through it.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flying ants at Wimbledon. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was playing on the No 2 court, said: “That was strange. Sometimes you have them in the US at night and in Australia.

“This was different. It was in my nose, in my hair,” said the Frenchman, who is seeded 12.

Johanna Konta was forced to wipe one from her arms during her tense match against the Croatian Donna Vekić, which saw the British No 1 and No 6 seed eventually triumph in three sets.

Her fellow Brit Aljaž Bedene repeatedly had to swat the insects on his way to overpowering his Bosnian opponent Damir Džumhur on the No 3 court.

After coming off court, Konta said she had swallowed some of the ants. “There were many. It was interesting. It kind of went in stages. At one point there was a lot then towards the end of the match I don’t think there were that many.

“But I definitely have taken home a few, both in in my belly and in my bags. Im pretty sure I have.”

Tasty? she was asked. “I didn’t think about it. Rather not,” she replied.

Flying ants swarm during warm weather usually in July and August. Paul Hetherington of the Buglife charity said: “Ants tend to fly on the same few days of the year across the country, not on a specific date as it varies year on year.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kader Nouni, the umpire on centre court, reacts to the flying ants. Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Reuters

“It is presumably to increase the chances of mixing gene pools by ants from different nests meeting. Generally the weather is warm and humid on the days they fly.”

Spectators were equally affected. Sarah Howard, from Weybridge, Surrey, watching Bedene’s victory, said she had “killed a few” during the match, but had found the 29C heat more annoying.

Henry Maynard, 22, a medical student from Shepherd’s Bush, west London, said: “There’s quite a few of them. You can see them on the court and in the stands, flying around. I don’t know what it’s like for the players but it’s pretty annoying for the crowd. They have picked an unfortunate day to come out, haven’t they?”