By smell, do u mean like ants are walking by n u can smell them, or like you're jamming your face into ant hills n giving it a whiff?

So, what do ants smell like?

I never noticed this, but I'm not around ants that much as a software engineer. :)

Huh, TIL I can smell ants too.

I used to live in a basement that had regular cycles of ant infestations. I would know they had returned, because the room had started to smell a certain way. Kind of like, damp slightly sweaty skin, but also kind of woody?

Every time I smelt it, I'd always find fresh ant eggs along the wall in the room.

I agree it's surprising that people can smell ants as a genetic quirk, but it's not typing-what-the-fuck-in-all-caps surprising.

My mother in law can do it, she'll walk into a room, sniff disagreeably and say - "Huele a hormiga."

This makes me wonder all the weird shit we can't detect just because of our genes. Like I read about this one women who could smell dementia. And to think birds can see UV light and its theorized they can see the fucking earth's magnetic field which is how they can tell which why is north and south.

Is it the formic acid? I bet it is.

Which ants? All ants?

I can for sure smell them but only close up, not from feet away so I’m not sure what that means for me in terms of this gene. They have a very odd musty smell which is also detectable on anything they’ve walked on recently. It’s not a very pleasant odor.

As far as I know it’s all ants, not just a particular type.

See, My Hero Academia is real. It's just that our quirks suck. Is not having allergies a quirk. Cause that's the best I've got. That or my weak sense of smell. Comes in handy when cleaning disgusting stuff.

WHO RUNS AROUND SNIFFING ON ANTS?!

I swear if I get close enough I can hear ants. Am I crazy or is this a thing? (It’s like a high pitched buzzing or humming, like an electrical hum.)