I have the same thing. Maybe not quite that powerful, but as a kid I used to root out ant hills to shove sticks in and be a general terror. I thought it was normal until I started dating a girl and we went on a picnic and pointed them out saying we shouldn’t eat there. If I smash one it smells like someone opened a can of gas in the room.
You’re a genetic masterpiece.
Yes, I hope she realized that she should have a family with that guy. Those genes need preserving
And when did Charles Xavier reach out to you?
When I was 14, but I asked if he had a sister cause I’m into girls with shaved heads, and he just waved his hand and gave me ADHD and then walked away.
Forget Westchester - my boy Shino here has a whole clan, come to Konoha
https://youtu.be/ZHJG48NSWzg had to do it
Fuck I have the stupid shitty cilantro gene and there’s some dudes with ant hunting genes?
Not fair :(
I put soap and cilantro into stuff i make so no one feels superior
“Now it sucks for me and you! Just kidding, I like the taste of soap.”
I love cilantro, but if I put enough on a taco or something I can taste a little bit of soapiness. It isn’t bad enough to put me off of it, but I get it.
It’s funny. Cilantro tastes weird and I don’t like it, but I wouldn’t say it tastes soapy. That said, whenever I have it, I always notice this weird taste, but never actually recognize it. Then I check the ingredients and there it is.
Cilantro in salsa is so good. Something about how the flavor of the tomato acts with it… I need to make some salsa now.
There was a brief moment, while I was going through SERE training, in the Navy; it was before we were “captured” but long enough that I hadn’t eaten in a while. We were in the low mountains of SoCal, dry and hot. Whenever we would stop movement for a moment and take a seat, I could smell when an ant was on me.
I didn’t recognize what the smell was at first until I saw an ant, after smelling it. I hooked him on my finger and brought him close to my nose and it was clear, he was the source.
I couldn’t describe it very well though, not a common smell to me. Never experienced it since.
Maybe it was the combination of no food or bathing, and heightened stress. My SiL also went through SERE, says she has no idea what I was talking about, and just makes fun of me about it. But she’s also the type of person who would lie about it, just to fuck with me.
So who knows.
It’s a genetic quirk, entirely possible they don’t have it and you do. There’s definitely a thing with real hunger and increased senses too though. I experienced the same thing in Iraq when we out ran our supply lines and went on severe rationing.
Gonna starve myself to see if I have the ant smelling superpower
Let me know how it goes. I honestly would love to know.
So far it’s going terrible. I can’t find a single ant to get a control test done. I swear these little fellas were everywhere until they heard my plans to begin developing this superpower now they’re nowhere to be seen.
OK I have done the experiment. It was a massive failure.
So on a normal day I cannot smell ants. I can smell ants if I’m close and I squash them so I now know what they smell like.
I fasted for almost 3 days and I tried to smell ants each day and I could never smell them.
I did learn that they bite and I got bit a lot.
Some comments are calling it a genetic quirk, but I submit to you all that it is the ones that lack the ability that have a deficiency.
Am I also deficient if I lack the ability to taste soap when I eat cilantro?
please eat all the cilantro so we never have to see it on a dish again
I’m one of the very rare people that have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, but likes it. I blame the soap flavoured gum I had as a kid here in Canada.
So maybe save a little soaplantro for those that want it ;)
cilantro tastes like soap for you ? no way, is this real ?
It’s pretty common. I mourn for those that aren’t freakish enough to actually want to eat soap. I mourn for those like the parent too, but for different reasons.
Yes because it makes you worse at finding and disposing of those damn stink bugs, whose stink smells vaguely like how soapy cilantro tastes because of aldehydes.
I have an anteater but I can’t smell the ants
You gotta show em who’s the real boss. Hold tight and jerk hard until successful complaince is observed
yeah a small % of folks can smell them.
Last time I was reading through comments from those who could, the common response was “sorta like raisins”
Spicy raisins
A little like cilantro
I’m one of the ones that dislike the smell of cilantro as it is repugnant. (to me)
Old cilantro that’s starting to go bad maybe. That has a very “earthy” smell similar to an over-watered plant
I have it. My mom used to crush ants she saw in the kitchen before she realized that the stink I was complaining about was the stench of compressed ant corpses. Don’t get me started on these stinky fucks:
I’m so intrigued! What do centipedes smell like?
I think that’s a millipede. Centipedes = 1 pair of legs per body segment, millipedes = multiple pairs per body segment.
In the picture it looks like more than one pair of legs per body segment.
I think that’s how it is, anyway.
Milipedes.
The closest I can equate it to is hair chemicals.like the stuff they use for perms or coloring…but worse.
EDIT: Ants also have a strong chemical smell. Pungent like Krazy Glue but not at all the same.
I can smell millipedes up close but not far away. I also can’t smell ants
If I touch an ant I can certainly smell it on my finger but I wouldn’t be able to detect an ant in the room with me
I can’t say I’ve ever gotten ant on my finger then proceeded to smell my finger.
When I was a kid it was a thing to stick a stick into a nest of ants so they’d piss on it so you could then suck/sniff the stick for a… sensation.
I never did as I didn’t want to bother the ants.
Chimp coded
I can’t do that, I think you have special ant powers
I can register formic acid if I touch an ant or am fairly close. Probably wouldn’t smell an ant from a distance, though
Like some kind of any man
Omg, this is peak nerd.
If this is a thing it’s def a special subset of ant smellers that would go ant hunting (whatever quantity of ants).
They smell SO BAD. I was super sensitive to it as a kid, and the smell would be impossible to get off, so I developed a habit of never crushing them.
Why tf would anyone crush ants? Is this a thing?
Like, killing them? One or two running across a table, and you just pop em?
You murderer!
I hope the smell never washes off your hand, you sick son of a bitch.Look, if they wanna stay alive, they can take a shower.
Huh, oh yeah, like any invertebrate, bcs they are within human space which isn’t allowed.
Idk why my brainhole didn’t make the connection, I def know people that kill eg spiders if they see them.
I sometimes kill mosquitos that won’t leave via regular ventilation paths.
We like you too.
I leave the dead mosquitos outside as an offering for the local flying squids, much like ravens they are smart af, and a pleasant addition to the square concrete jungle we made for some reason.
Thank you, but we prefer mackerel.
Spider Bros can stay. Ants too stinky.
No, it’s ugly? I just swish them away.
Like spray them with water? Sure, if they’re in the sink or on the counter. If you mean just swat them away, I wouldn’t trust that to kill them. And as soon as it doesn’t kill them, and they find their way back to the nest, there’s a chance they’ll lead others back, if they found so much as a scrap of food.
As a tool-using species, killing them with something you won’t care about the smell being on seems pretty trivial.
It releases the smell. It stays around in the room.
I can’t smell ants but I can smell roaches. Any house or restaurant I walk into that has that signature roach scent, I do a 180° and leave.
As to describe the scent of roaches: Pungent, wet/moldy towel smell, worse when they’re dead.
We need people like you as health inspectors.
You know, I feel like I know that smell as well. Not anywhere NEAR as pungent as the ant smell, but I’ve been in some… Unfortunate situations with enough roaches that I can conjure up that smell.
Wait I thought wveryone can smell roaches
Well, now I can’t help but wonder if burning them is better or worse.
Probably better, I’ve never tried it. I just imagine a bunch of tiny fireballs running around.
In my experience it’s way better, and that having a candle burning will usually clear up the scent of a crush in relatively short order.
Only if he eats it.
Yeah. It sounds more like he could be Ant-Man and is able to pick up on the trails. If he can communicate with them by twreking his butt into the ground, I’m convinced.
I wouldn’t say I can smell if there’s a single ant in the other room, but I can absolutely smell if there are ants. And I hate if I have to sweep them out do anything because they really pop off in distress. Its crazy how such a tiny thing can smell so bad.
He’s like an X-Men hero designed to find Ant-Man when he gets stuck between couch cushions or something.
The odorous black house ant is pretty common in the US. The smell is pretty pronounced if you crush them - grad student I was doing field work under randomly shouted “come smell my finger!” and yeah - it’s very much like blue cheese.
mom, my nuts?
I can smell ant death pheromones. It smells like cleaner and artificial sweetener. A very unique smell but very pungent.
