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Ant smell (mander.xyz)

submitted 2 years ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml 179 points 2 years ago

"Genetic quirk", you say?

[-] HonkTonkWoman@lemm.ee 78 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

“What’s your mutation? Teleportation? Laser Eyes? Weaponized Tornadoes?”

“…I… I can smell ants... how about yours?”

“Oh… well… my mutation is that cilantro tastes like chalk to me.”

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago

I was born with 2.5 kidneys, an extra ureter and 4 of my permanent teeth never showed up. Also mild colour vision deficiency.

I was talking about it with our first lieutenant in the army and he went "Corporal, you're a mutant!". "Yes, sir, I am sir."

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[+] Humana@lemmy.world 143 points 2 years ago

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[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 89 points 2 years ago

I can smell ants and cockroaches. I can also smell when someone has been in my house hours after they leave. Its annoying as hell to have this sense of smell since its considered rude to point out that someone stinks. To me its like they are screaming in a small room.

[-] Lurker@lemmy.zip 41 points 2 years ago

I recently had to close my store for an hour, because I was the only one working and couldn't breath due to one customers bad hygiene. People treat me like I'm overly sensitive or making up my discomfort, but to me it feels like being suffocated.

Also I can totally smell roaches, they smell worse than any other thing in existence. Never smelled an ant though. Did not know that was possible.

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[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago

No anime conventions for you unless you wear a gas mask!

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[-] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 46 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm one of these people. I can smell an apartment roach infestation from the front door, every time.

And yes, restaurants always get the "sniff check" before we sit down. No-go odors are:

bleach
pine-sol (amonia)
heavy perfume (think "Glade plugin-in")
insects (roaches, etc)
pet odor (wet dog, litterbox)
sewage (usually a dry floor drain but that's still not okay)
dingy carpet (think: "old movie theater")

The first two are obvious attempts at covering up something worse with "clean" smells, and/or the staff has no idea what "clean" actually means. And they obviously don't care what olfaction means to someone trying to enjoy a meal, which says heaps about what they think food service actually is. Everything else just speaks to the "I don't care what you smell" part, or there's something very wrong with how the kitchen is run. /rant

An example of a top-shelf dining odor experience? I once went to a Japanese restaurant at opening time. The only smell in the dining room was that of the specific kind of imported cedar in the cutting boards. This is traditionally cleaned with boiling hot water, and nothing else. This released a gentle woody and pine-y scent that just filled the space and invited the senses. I came hungry, but I sat down ravenous. The meal to follow was something I will never forget.

Edit: some clarification since this got some traction. I know that bleach and ammonia are s-tier disinfectants and absolutely necessary for food prep, health standards, and the rest. I use this stuff at home. My issue is with establishments that utterly fail at ventilating these odor and spoil the dining experience with strong chemical odors. Looking deeper I find very strong cleaning odors (long after opening hours) suspicious since it's very easy to splash stuff around, giving the impression of cleanliness, but not actually clean anything. Strong chemical smells also make it impossible to detect sewage, rot, mold, soil, and other things that would easily flag a restaurant. I'd rather not take the chance.

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[-] tja@sh.itjust.works 113 points 2 years ago

Wait, is that true? Is someone able to smell ants?

[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 116 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

There are lots of weird genetic traits. Sneezing triggered by sunlight is another funny one.

Veritasium video on that one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e69XZJ9DEj0

[-] Stern@lemmy.world 121 points 2 years ago

I got the "cilantro tastes like soap" gene personally. Would much rather have gotten the, "Always remember where I left my car keys" gene, or maybe the, "Come up with witty retorts on the spot instead of two hours later in the shower" one.

[-] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 48 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

At least you don't have my "sky-high cholesterol no matter what you eat" gene.

Also artificial sweeteners have an unpleasant chemical aftertaste that lingers for a long time. Apparently that's generic too...

[-] zod000@lemmy.ml 30 points 2 years ago

TIL about the artificial sweetener thing, this explains a lot. I have never been able to understand people enjoying diet soda.

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[-] TurtleTourParty@midwest.social 25 points 2 years ago

I love cilantro, but I got the celery tastes bitter and spicy gene. So many people tell me it's tasteless but it has a strong, terrible taste to me.

[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone 40 points 2 years ago

Bitter and spicy kinda sounds like an allergy my dude

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[-] MacStache@programming.dev 41 points 2 years ago

I have that! Sneezed twice today because of bright sunlight. It can sometimes also be triggered voluntarily by looking at a bright light. You can't trigger it multiple times in a row though. I suspect this is because sinuses need to recover from the shock of the sneeze.

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[-] thegr8goldfish@startrek.website 61 points 2 years ago

Smell is how ants communicate with one another so maybe these ant sniffers will be the first humans who can speak ant.

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[-] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/61/2/85/1756864

https://www.livescience.com/why-ants-smell-weird

However, the sense of smell in humans is far less developed, and there has been recent controversy over what, exactly, the odorous house ant smells like. This species belongs to a large group of ants whose members are thought to smell like blue cheese (Forney and Markovetz 1971) [link is direct 3.0 mb .pdf download from elsevier], yet numerous online sources report their odor as “rancid butter,” “cleaning solution,” or, most commonly, “rotten coconuts.”

Specifically, the house ~~hippo~~ ant.

*The actual factual paper was actually literally published in 2015, no cap.

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[-] cadekat@pawb.social 95 points 2 years ago

Who the fuck is out here censoring fuck?

[-] alekwithak@lemmy.world 43 points 2 years ago

You can't say shit or dead or suicide or fuck anymore because the internet has become C O R P O R A T E

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[-] awesome_lowlander@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 2 years ago

Please spoiler your comment

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[-] TheControlled@lemmy.world 80 points 2 years ago

Holy shit I thought I was either full of shit or a mutant freak. I'm happy to be a mutant freak.

I feel so validated right now you guys have no idea.

[-] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 years ago

Congratulations on your mutation. This one sucks less than the cilantro one.

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[-] alekwithak@lemmy.world 67 points 2 years ago

This just tells me ant particles are constantly flying into my nose and mouth and I don't have receptors for them. Gross

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[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 50 points 2 years ago

Wait are you telling me y’all actually don’t smell ants? They’re a weird and kinda smell like blue cheese. Definitely the smellier of insects.

[-] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 79 points 2 years ago

I've never heard of insects having a smell, other than like stinkbugs!

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[-] Allero@lemmy.today 48 points 2 years ago

It's like me figuring out after 23 years that most people don't sneeze looking at the sun

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[-] xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works 48 points 2 years ago

Ant smell is for communicating with other ants. These are ant smellers not human. The ant-people have been controlling our governments. It's true! Look it up!

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago

Mine has always been vision and hearing hard sounds, like doors closing. I can hear all the stupid little sounds like that. And I'm just weirdly good at deciphering shadows at night as long as there's some light.

I'm sure in ancient times this variation of who has good senses for what served a purpose.

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 39 points 2 years ago

Probably similar to that "bitterness" test that a lot of kids got to do in science class where you taste that little strip of paper. To some it's nothing, to others it's very bitter. Genetics has given some the extra "taste", supposedly that might allow people to avoid eating poisonous things containing oxalates or glucosinates. Unfortunately it also means you probably dislike things lie IPA beers or other foods that have bitter compounds that don't bother others.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 23 points 2 years ago

Holy shit. IPAs make so much more sense now!

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[-] HeadfullofSoup@kbin.earth 33 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's seem to be the same as with cilantro a genetic trait that some people have and other don't

https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/61/2/85/1756864?login=false

Dunno if that a good source as everything i found about that exept for thos page talked about the tiktok post and not science

Tldr : ( i did not read the article in full ) the smell is described as a moldy pina colada

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[-] essteeyou@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago

Some people wipe standing up...

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[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 32 points 2 years ago

Gotta love how they see a video talking about it, with comments talking about it, and their first step is to post on Facebook asking about it before doing a simple search on their own.

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[-] bamfic@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago

I can smell wasps nests. The queen odor is very strong to me. But other smells people notice are lost on me.

And I hear everything. Autism I guess.

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[-] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 29 points 2 years ago

Same as asparagus wee. Man, when anyone has eaten asparagus I can smell it before I enter the door to the bathroom. When I have eaten it myself, I’m partly horrified and partly morbidly fascinated. What the fuck is up with only some people being able to smell it.

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[-] stanleytweedle@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago

Formic acid

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[-] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago

I can't smell living ants, but there's a common species of ant in the US that smells like rotten coconut when squished.

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[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago

I can only smell them when I kill them 🤷‍♂️

[-] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 2 years ago

That's the formic acid

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[-] thejoker954@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago

Great, now im gonna accidently inhale some ants as I try to smell them.

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[-] dumbass@leminal.space 22 points 2 years ago

So, what do ants smell like?

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this post was submitted on 28 May 2024

1144 points (98.1% liked)

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