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.
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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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.
Whatever, keep your ant-smelling superpower, I'm not jealous. At least cilantro doesn't taste like soap to me! :P
We need a study on if that’s the divide. If you can smell ants you also think cilantro tastes like soap
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.)
Cilantro: tastes like soap
Can smell ants: no
Sorry, I'm a counterpoint. I got the worst of both.
But do ants taste like soap or cilantro
I'm with you. Can't smell ants, but cilantro is soapy.
There are lots of little genetic quirks out there. I experience Arnold's Reflex, that is, I cough when I stick a cotton swab in my left ear canal. (Only my left. My right doesn't react.) There's also the Photic Sneeze Reflex, which is where you sneeze when looking at light. I don't have that, but around 35% of the population does.
I'm sure there are countless more little things like this that people just haven't talked about/gathered enough data on yet.
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.
I am afraid that cilantro does taste like soap to me but that people around me have been telling me long enough that it's tasty that I started to like it.
Tldr: I now like the taste of soap.
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.
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?
FUCK
FUCK
FUCK
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.
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
jorked. ok
no wonder why people avoid me.
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
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
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.
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.
Only bug I can smell are millipedes.
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.
Which vegetables are supposed to be bitter?
It smells so weird and strong. I'm surprised not everyone can smell this. I wonder how common this is?
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.
Omg the ants are so smelly
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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.
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