I can for sure smell them but only close up, not from feet away so I’m not sure what that means for me in terms of this gene. They have a very odd musty smell which is also detectable on anything they’ve walked on recently. It’s not a very pleasant odor.
Ant smell
Submitted 5 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/fd1e5c2f-25ef-48c7-b3a2-e8b4955d7ea9.jpeg
Comments
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
inefficient_electron@lemmy.world 5 months ago
You’re probably smelling the pheromone trails they use for navigation/communication.
Lumisal@lemmy.world 5 months ago
You can smell them feet away if it’s a pile of dead ones
jaybone@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I swear if I get close enough I can hear ants. Am I crazy or is this a thing? (It’s like a high pitched buzzing or humming, like an electrical hum.)
stebo02@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
I’m no expert but I think you should see a doctor.
Faresh@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
I do hear them if they are large enough and in high enough numbers, but it isn’t a hum that I hear. I hear what I imagine are them waking or the stuff they carry.
crushyerbones@lemmy.world 5 months ago
My weird “paranormal” quirk is knowing when someone is sick by smell. My nose is usually blocked up and I can barely smell flowers but for some reason I can just tell when someone is incubating some sickness that will make them bedridden the next day.
No idea how it works. I just smell “sick” - it’s kind of this warm earthy ground smell. I can even smell it on myself sometimes and I’ll know I need to take a day off. My theory is I can smell something off in the skin temperature.
JargonWagon@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I believe cats and/or dogs can also smell “sick” as you’ve described. I remember reading about a hospital that had either a dog or a cat who would cuddle up with people the night before they passed away of their sickness or something.
notaviking@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Grim reaper’s messenger cat
IzzyJ@lemmy.world 5 months ago
This thread makes me glad Im bad with regular smells, let alone ant pheromones and shit like that. Downside is I cant tune out sounds, I always hear everything full blast
Chetzemoka@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Me being a nurse makes me glad I’m bad with regular smells lol
EvolvedTurtle@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Some of my family can smell spiders
ameancow@lemmy.world 5 months ago
There are a lot of creatures that have very distinct smells but you never get close enough to them to notice. Reptiles make for some stanky pets even though I doubt many of you could identify a lizard terrarium smell. Many insects produce smells as defense mechanisms but you can barely smell it as a human. Grasshoppers and many beatles in particular tend to secrete nasty smelling slime when handled, a smell that follows them around, and that’s a smell I can recall clearly and sharply.
I have a theory though that human smell has lost sensitivity because of social reasons. We used to be fantastic at chemical analysis until civilization happened and we all started using soap and telling each other that normal, every day smells are now “bad” and we need to mask them with perfumes and soaps.
mihor@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
I used to be able to smell spiders when I was a kid. The spider web, to be exact. It has a quite specific but not unpleasant smell to it.
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
I’ve always wondered if that’s what arachnophobia is, you can smell or hear them when most people can’t.
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 5 months ago
I can’t smell or hear them, but I know where I’m likely to find one and can’t see it. That scares me. Lol
I’m slowly trying to overcome my fear of spiders, but you’ll never catch me boopin’ a black window claiming it’s “friend shaped”! Lol
brown567@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
I started smelling them after I had Covid XD
EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
I have a very powerful sense of smell.
systemglitch@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s a very unique smell and hard to explain, but nothing on earth smells similar.
DarkCloud@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s probably the fromaldahyde they have as blood… If you crush them then smell the remains it’s pretty strong and specific.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They smell kind of like blood and iron to me.
RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I can only smell them if there’s a number of them, but ‘cleaning solution’ like one said works for the scent. I also have the ‘cilantro tastes like soap’ gene, so maybe they’re connected.
BlueKey@kbin.run 5 months ago
I have the "cilantro tastes so that I need to throw up" gene but I don't smell ants.
sirico@feddit.uk 5 months ago
muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Can i genetically engineer the capability? Surly crisper could do it?
sajran@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
But… How do you even know you can smell ants? Why did you try it? Or can you smell them from meters away?
platypus_plumba@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I can smell them like at a 1m distance. They smell bad. The first time I realized what they smell like, I took a bite of a muffin and it had ants. I tasted the muffin and another bad flavor so I looked and it had ants. From that moment I could smell them, not because I couldn’t smell them before but because now I knew what they smelled like.
rdri@lemmy.world 5 months ago
now I knew what they smelled like.
You might be missing out on a secret quest that ends with “get addicted to ants”.
HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Can y’all who can’t smell ants taste ants?
MutilationWave@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yep. Never knew people could smell them until today. I asked my wife and she can smell them. But they taste very sour.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Aunt smell is worse trust me
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Depends on the aunt.
UncleBadTouch@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
i want to know how many things people had to snarf before realizing it was a tiny bug that they are smelling. how many ants were lost in noses over the years from people testing the theory?
myster0n@feddit.nl 5 months ago
I can only smell them when they’re crawling in my nose
axont@hexbear.net 5 months ago
Yeah same, I’ve been trying to find less stinky ants for my morning ant snort
VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
I somewhat experience this with ants, but I really experience this with ladybugs. Am I the genetic freak for being able to smell ladybugs?
fossilesque@mander.xyz 5 months ago
Ladybugs smell like piss.
VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
Yes they do
phx@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
I’m pretty sure I’m in the camp of people who can smell ants.
shiroininja@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They smell like a strong chemical smell to me, like sulfur
LifeOfChance@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Ants smell terrible. I also thought it was a common sense
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 5 months ago
I feel like it might just be the types of ants but idk.
Maultasche@lemmy.world 5 months ago
So is this only for the American House Ant or also for European Carpenter Ants?
baduhai@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
I can smell ants, but I dont think they smell that bad. The smell is hardly ever strong enough to be unpleasant. Also, in the region of the world I live in, if you start smelling ants but don’t see them anywhere, it means it’s gonna rain.
therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Lot of larping in the modern age
Poogona@hexbear.net 5 months ago
Sometimes ants can’t smell ants either and you get supercolonies
HawlSera@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Ants have a scent?
AeonFelis@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They’re anteaters.
aeki@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
Which ants? All ants?
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
I can smell the tiny black ants more than any other but I can smell all of them. I didn’t know this was a genetic trait until now.
aeki@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
I’ve never smelled ants, but like maybe ants in Sweden don’t smell? It’s why I wanted to know which kinds.
DarkCloud@lemmy.world 5 months ago
From how far away?