Invasion of the Electric Ants! Fears fire-starting bugs will sweep UK after colony of a million insects is found

Britain is bracing itself for a summer invasion of 'electric ants' after the country's largest ever colony was found in Eastbourne.

The ants, also called Asian Super Ants, arrived in the UK in imported pot plants and the first colony was found in Gloucestershire in 2009.

Since then, colonies have been found in Essex, London, Norfolk, Cambridge, Yorkshire and Suffolk, with a huge colony of up to one million electric ants now found in Eastbourne in East Sussex.

Previously, the biggest ever colony found in the UK was at the National Trust's Hidcote Manor Gardens in Gloucestershire, where 35,000 Asian Super Ants were discovered in just one junction box in 2009.