Whatever, keep your ant-smelling superpower, I’m not jealous. At least cilantro doesn’t taste like soap to me! :P
Genes be crazy
Submitted 2 months ago by LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://piefed.cdn.blahaj.zone/posts/j9/CU/j9CUX1D5EiEJwfQ.jpg
Comments
Lemminary@lemmy.world 2 months ago
kautau@lemmy.world 2 months ago
We need a study on if that’s the divide. If you can smell ants you also think cilantro tastes like soap
lengau@midwest.social 2 months ago
Cilantro: tastes like soap
Can smell ants: no
Sorry, I’m a counterpoint. I got the worst of both.
Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
I can’t smell ants, and cilantro tastes soapy. However, I do have dry earwax and my armpits don’t smell. (Which is just spurious information to your hypothesis.)
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Can smell ants, love cilantro, can’t smell stinkbugs.
Wilco@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Exactly! Cilantro tastes like soap to me, but my kids love it. That is so weird. Ant smell and probably snake smell are the same I bet. I have heard old people say they can smell a snake around.
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I can smell ants strongly and have an aversion to them, and cilantro tastes wonderful to me.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
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
Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Your part of the ten thousand…
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
That’s the most useless censoring of the word “Fuck” I have ever seen 😅
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
mysticalone@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Why did you censor a small mushroom?
Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
What’cha got there, m8?
Smoogs@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It looked like it was originally meant to censore word much smalller
TomAwsm@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What is this, censoring for ants!?
FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 2 months ago
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.
starik@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
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.
ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 2 months ago
STOP FUCKING POSTING CENSORED SHIT
vivalapivo@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Yeah, right? As if they were censoring only the victims’ personal info
jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
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.
9blb@feddit.org 2 months ago
Could it just be the reflections of ambient noise you also get when you hold your ear close to any surface? The old “If you hold a seashell to your ear, you can hear the ocean” kind of thing.
Loui@feddit.org 2 months ago
I usually can’t but when hiking in fall we came to a big anthill and you could hear the leaves rustling below their little legs.
I was so exited as I had never heard that before.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 2 months ago
Ants definitely produce sound when they walk. And why wouldn’t they?
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 2 months ago
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.
BoosBeau@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That person is a liar!! I listen to ants all the time and the only sound they make is smooth jazz.
jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
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.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 months ago
Is it the formic acid?
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Has to be, it’s got that same “bite” that other acids have, only a little more earthy
j5906@feddit.org 2 months 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…
unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Yeah
AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Depends. With North American formica ants, it’s formic acid, but with Canadian odorous house ants, it’s a methyl ketone that smells a lot like blue cheese.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 months ago
smells a lot like blue cheese
Oh, so stinky feet smell?
childOfMagenta@jlai.lu 2 months ago
Are we talking formic acid from crushed ants or just there is an ant around and they can smell it?
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
Not just crushed ants, I smell it when they’re scared and running as well. Calm ants though, they don’t smell to me.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 months ago
I smell it either way but it’s stronger when they’re crushed.
kandoh@reddthat.com 2 months ago
That’s true of most animals
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Sometimes science do be cruel like that
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
It smells so weird and strong. I’m surprised not everyone can smell this. I wonder how common this is?
BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 2 months ago
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?
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
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.
notthebees@reddthat.com 2 months ago
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)
unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Omg the ants are so smelly
Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk 2 months ago
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”
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 2 months ago
Probably makes you easier to poison. I will keep that in mind.
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 months ago
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 the same sickly scent and makes me think of decay and loamy undergrowth and is very unappetizing so I’ve never enjoyed mushrooms.
Klairabelle@lemmy.world 2 months ago
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.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Is this like how some people can smell if a dude jorked it that day?
radiouser@crazypeople.online 2 months ago
no wonder why people avoid me.
HurricaneLiz@lemmy.world 2 months ago
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
jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
jorked. ok
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I don’t think that’s real, like the “clogged showers” urban legend that won’t die.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
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.
tamal3@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Does everyone agree that ladybugs smell terrible??!
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
Yes, beetles in general don’t smell great to me. They leave a fecal-like scent on my fingers when I hold them (Which I’ve always assumed is some sort of musk and not actual feces). I can smell ants too, but it’s only when they’re scared: They seem to release a chemical that smells to me like Windex the moment they realize they’re possibly in danger. I didn’t know that made me special, but I do know that others might not be able to smell it as I’ve had conversations about this with people who didn’t know wtf I was talking about. I’ve heard that it might be formic acid? Not sure.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Yes! I’m not super sensitive to them, but one time in school I had one land on me and curiosity got the better of me. Never again!
sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
some ants when attacked do produce a small (probably by spraying chemicals that is supposed to paralyses/repel other small insects). that I can smell but I can’t smell an ant peacefully walking around.
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 2 months ago
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.
tomjuggler@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’ll bet you CAN taste ants though
bluegreenpurplepink@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I can smell earthworms when it rains. It’s gross.
Omnipitaph@reddthat.com 2 months ago
TIL I’m a mutant. X-men watch out!
JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
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.
Etterra@discuss.online 2 months ago
I’m not surprised to learn this, given that there are certain tastes that are generic. The “cilantro tastes like soap” mutation, and the “bitter vegetables are good actually” mutation come to mind.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Called evolution. Yes, it’s still ongoing in humans. Btw, this is the reason that smaller populations have less survival chances.
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 2 months ago
There is a type of ant that smells like rotten coconut when squished. Is that what they’re talking about?
texture@lemmy.world 2 months ago
i can smell fruit flies and i wish i couldnt
anon_8675309@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Homo Orycteropus.
unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Ants will creep in. You will attempt your triumphant self sufficient middle of nowhere meal of rocks and soil. When your fire fails, Youll rip open your last remaining stash of nutritiuous gruel and stuff a handful in your mouth, and taste that acid.
notthebees@reddthat.com 2 months ago
I can’t smell it but I can feel it. I just get really itchy.
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 2 months ago
When an idea gets to tiktok, the lines are as written as any script.
cybervseas@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m tired of microblog screenshots that self-censor 😕
Also that’s cool. I’m pretty sure I cannot smell ants. But it’s also possible there are ants everywhere I go, so I can’t discern what part of the background smells are the ants.
LorIps@lemmy.world 2 months ago
FUCK
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 months ago
FUCK
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I was watching “deep dives” on Youtube yesterday and was getting confused by all the censoring. Even the word “sex” was censored, and like… what? Not just SA (which I understand censoring), but sex itself? In a video ostensibly designed for an adult (or at least teenage) audience?
It’s hard to follow a story when words get censored that you don’t expect to get censored. In my mind I think something much worse is being said, and have to pause and rewind to ensure I understood correctly. The best part is, the creator wasn’t even from the US, land of the puritans. I expect Europeans not to be afraid of sex, but I guess this is what Youtube is doing to the world.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That degree of censorship usually implies the content is dual posted to TikTok in my experience
ObtuseDoorFrame@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
People complaining about the censorship is significantly more annoying than the actual tiny little blue on one single letter in one single word.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Still not as annoying as the people who complain about the complaints.
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No smell has ever elevated when I near an ant colony, and I see wild ant colonies all the time. So I’m pretty sure I can’t.