Comment on Genes be crazy

• j5906@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I cant smell ants but I can “smell” formic acid. Even diluted formic acid is so much more pungent and terrible then vinegar, so I doubt its that…

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  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I went and read up on it, was going to edit in , but I’ll just do it here.

    Apparently it isn’t the formic acid, it’s other chemicals, and not all ants produce them. I have smelled what they’re talking about, or at least three descriptions of one kind of ant smelling like funky cheese is something I have run into.

    So you’re totally right, and my assumption was wrong.

    But damn, formic acid, even dilute, really is pungent. Nose wrinkling, sneeze inducing for me.

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    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Care to share what you read? I’m curious, too.

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      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        It was about ants having different smells, caused when either threatened or injured for the most part.

        Specifically, as an example I remembered because I’ve smelled it, the most common upper of ant you’ll find in houses (here in the US anyway) smells cheesy. It’s even called the odorous house ant. That’s because of a type of chemical called methyl ketones. Ketones are basically really volatile organic compounds; acetone is a ketone.

        Now, regarding what some people can’t smell vs those that can, reports were mixed. But, it does seem that formic acid can’t be smelled by everyone, and some ketones can’t be smelled by everyone. You either have the right genes active or you don’t. But, apparently, tiktok has yet again caused problems with inaccurate info spread, so people think that you either smell ants, or you don’t, which isn’t the case, it comes down to the chemicals they produce, and those vary.

        That being said, there is still the possibility that the reason any given individual hasn’t smelled ants is because they’ve never gotten close enough, or run across large numbers of the little ladies in one place. Most people aren’t going to get close to a bunch of crushed ants, and if ants are alive chances are you aren’t getting close enough to take a sniff unless you’re a real weirdo.

        And yes, I’m one of those weirdos that has gotten up close to both living and dead ants. Not to sniff them, but out of curiosity. Hence why I have smelled them in small numbers as well as larger groups. Some ants are really unconcerned about something the size of a human, particularly when it moves slowly enough not to seem like an insectivore coming in for a meal. So you can, if you’re careful, get up close enough to use a magnifying glass to get better looks at them doing their thing (and don’t burn them, it’s not at all okay).

        When you get that close, even though there’s no alarm pheromones, every ant type I ever got close to had that pungent, acrid smell of formic acid. It’s similar to vinegar or other acids that you might use around the house, but definitely not the same. Like I said elsewhere, it’s earthier and more pungent.

        My area has some red ants, and if enough of those die, they smell like pepper. As in standard table pepper.

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    • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Yeah so i paid a team of experts to do my job

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      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Wise choice!

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