My friend really doesn’t like when I shapeshift into an ant because of the smell
Are you sure it happens when you shape shift?
Yeah, She really hates the smell of ants. If I turn into an ant She’d rather leave the room until I turn into something else.
I had no idea it was a genetic thing that not everyone has. It’s pretty awesome that after fifty years slogging through life, I still run across cool new shit like this
Your part of the ten thousand…
Well, how do you know it isn’t just the smell of the enviroment? I always smell a distinctive smell around ants in the forest, but I don’t know if that’s actually just the smell of their hill (is it actually called a hill) or of ants.
My anecdotal experience.
I was in SERE school, in the US Navy.
We were in the field portion of the training, the low mountains of SoCal.
I would periodically get this weird, almost bitter smell. Fast forward a day and I realized the smell was when there was an ant on me.
I don’t know if it was a combo of the environment, the type of ant, the lack of food or showering for a few days, but it was pretty reliable.
After SERE was over, I have never experienced it again.
If you smell a distinct smell around ants, maybe it’s the ants that you’re smelling.
I’m pretty sure I’ve smelled a dead fly before, but not like Lee Mack.
Only bug I can smell are millipedes.
STOP FUCKING POSTING CENSORED SHIT
Yeah, right? As if they were censoring only the victims’ personal info
I can’t smell it but I can feel it. I just get really itchy.
Some people can smell ants. Some people can smell Parkinson’s disease.
I don’t think I can smell either of those but I can smell B.O.
I can smell earthworms when it rains. It’s gross.
How do you discerne between the smell of rain and that of earthworms ?
The rain doesn’t talk to you
Speak for yourself.
I can smell worms, period, but I don’t think it’s gross.
I never knew about this. Is this the same gene which makes people like/dislike bitter foods?
Years ago at a place I worked at, food manufacturers, the R&D team did a taste workshop. 5 cups of flavours, salt, bitter, water, umami, sweet. The bitter one just tasted of water to me. They called it “bitter blind”
There’s a couple different chemical compounds that can activate your bitter receptors (caffeine for instance) but there are a few bitter chemicals like Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) or N-Propylthiouracil (PROP) that have been linked to variations in a specific gene (TAS2R38). Where I used to work we used PROP strips you’d just put on your tongue to categorize participants into tasters, non-tasters, and potential super-tasters. If it tasted like nothing, you didn’t have the genetic variant. If it tasted like bitterness, it could either be not that bad or, for example in my experience, it’s really really terrible and takes some effort to remove from the tongue.
I can smell ants and it’s a pretty weird smell, but I don’t get any of the bitter food problems that some people have with certain vegetables.
With the exception of mushrooms. For some reason mushrooms spark that same sensitivity to ant scents, it’s a similar sickly scent and makes me think of decay and loamy undergrowth and is very unappetizing so I’ve never enjoyed mushrooms.
decay and loamy undergrowth
That’s about the closest descriptor I can think of as well. Ants are more metallic to my scent than mushies but that’s it.
I tried truffles once and that came closer to tasting the way ants smell than regular mushrooms. As you said, more metallic, sharper and more “alien.” People seem to like truffle a lot, I guess I will save money in my life by not having that indulgence.
I haven’t tried truffles.
Funnily enough I like mushrooms. The smell of ants never used to bother me that much either; finding out it’s selective is intriguing.
It smells so weird and strong. I’m surprised not everyone can smell this. I wonder how common this is?
Omg the ants are so smelly
I’m not exactly sure. My sense of smell has been shot since I got covid. It feels so weird. Some smells don’t exist, some are much stronger, some remained the same.
One good example is burning anything while cooking.
I can just feel it though. If I’m itchy while in my kitchen, 9/10 it’s ants (ground floor old apartment)
Now I need to know what I’m missing out on… I know the smell of formic acid, and can smell it if andts are really pissed off - but do they just smell?
I usually only smell it after they are agitated. I assume that’s what they meant? But usually when I’m smelling ants they are agitated.
Can you smell other insects or is it just ants? Any type of ant?
Most insects don’t have a strong odor. It’s all types of ants as far as I’ve noticed.
With ants I typically notice it on my hands after I’ve touched them. So it’s strong enough to linger in that way.
I don’t think I’ve touched an ant since I was a kid.
I don’t know. This is the first time in my life I have ever heard about people smelling ants. I have a really good sense of smell normally, but I have never smelled ants. Never heard anybody say they could smell them either. So, I think it might be quite common.
Homo Orycteropus.
Wow that’s really weird because i thought ants were supposed to be everywhere - at least in summertime when you go outside. If they smell that bad then it must be unbearable just walking around places in the city.
I can only smell them if I sniff a crushed one up close. It’s been a long time - I don’t step on bugs on purpose.
I don’t think they’re talking about the dead/distressed ant smell. To the best of my knowledge, everyone can smell that. They’re talking about a general smell of ants
Wait, everyone can smell dead ants? Pretty sure I can’t
I can’t smell them, but I can hear them
They smell like paint thinner
they smell funky, a bit like a salty battery doused with acid, if it makes sense?
I’m pretty sure that’s the smell they’re talking about, they make more of it when disturbed or crushed but it’s always a tiny bit there. But pretty sure that’s the smell they’re speaking of.
The reason I doubt that is because I can’t smell ants “all the time”. And I can definitely smell them when they’re disturbed. But most people who talk about smelling ants describe the smell as “damp” or “mouldy” or “earthy”, and I have never smelled an ant that smells like that.
The only smell I’ve ever smelled from them is acrid and acidic, and that only happens when they’re disturbed or dead.
It could be the same smell, maybe just a different concentration of formic acid.
And no, I can’t smell anything from dead or distressed ants. I’ve never smelled anything from an ant, either dead or alive. It’s definitely not an “everyone can smell that” thing.
Edit: I just read this comment which says it’s not formic acid. Though they don’t cite any sources (yet), so I don’t really know.
Same, never smelled ants.
And I’ve watched ants a lot when I was a kid. I still do sometimes.
I used to even bring pieces of food from the pantry to give to the ants.
I think I can hear ants. People probably think I’m crazy. Like if you bend down and get your face really close to their trail. It’s like a buzzing sound. Like static on an old TV. Creepy as fuck.
Ants definitely produce sound when they walk. And why wouldn’t they?
You’re the first person I’ve ever heard say you can hear buzzing sound of ants. I don’t doubt you, because why would you lie about something like that, but I would like to hear more people agree they can hear this and I want to read a scientific study.
I’m also terrified of having insects inside of the house. So it’s possible this is some kind of psychological reaction (?) rather than actually hearing them? But to me it “sounds” as I describe in the above post. Maybe someone can find something more scientific, like a study, I too would be curious.
That person is a liar!! I listen to ants all the time and the only sound they make is smooth jazz.
All the ones on my block sound like Aphex Twin.
He said ants, not aunts.
Oh my bad, I’m hard of hearing. Been listening to too many aunts.
Is this like how some people can smell if a dude jorked it that day?
I know I should quit vaping, but I’m also so glad my nose isn’t sensitive enough to smell that from random guys walking by anymore. It was constant tmi
I don’t think that’s real, like the “clogged showers” urban legend that won’t die.
The threads I’ve seen have a lot of replies of people who say they can smell it. One replied to me here. I suppose I tend to believe them because it would be a pointless thing to lie about and also the say it smells like sex so it seems plausible.
it would be a pointless thing to lie about
It was started as a prank against boys who masturbate but don’t know much about the world, like the idea that girls can tell you’ve done it. It’s childish and a lot of people keep it going.
I firmly believe the people though that the people who think they can tell are just smelling BO or the person has terrible hygiene and is not cleaning up after doing the deed. (Body/sweat/clothes smells are going to be much, much stronger than any remaining residue from sexual activity, alone or with others.) It’s very easy to get a confirmation bias here because I guarantee if you smell someone deliberately you’re going to notice smells you don’t normally, and if you ask them if they’ve masturbated that day, most guys if they were honest will say yes because for most guy’s that’s a daily activity anyway. I would need to see an actual controlled study to think there’s any reality to the claim.
So correct but I recommend some editing.
Damn I’m naive. Well, guess I helped perpetuate it. Yeah I can’t find many studies on people randomly having really sensitive olfactory senses either. Unless you count individual people who can smell stuff like Parkinson’s
jorked. ok
no wonder why people avoid me.
