human anteaters

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.

- Yes, I hope she realized that she should have a family with that guy. Those genes need preserving
- 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 can smell ants. I've eaten one before. They taste like iron. Like blood mixed with pepper. Idk why I told you that just now.
- They taste awful. Like licking a battery.
- Different ants taste different!
  I've had ants that taste like fizzy lime...
- you're welcome to untell me
- Not something I ever wondered, but it's a pretty neat anecdote.

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.
You went through SERE training? Damn soldier, you're harder than woodpecker lips! What was your MOS that required that training? I know someone who went through it and he said they locked him in a box that was too small to move in, and then played a recording of someone counting to 10 very slowly over and over again for hours. Did they do that to you?
- I was a helicopter aircrewman. They sent all aircrew through.
  I definitely wouldn't consider myself "harder than a woodpecker by any stretch", and yes, I got the box and there were several songs they would loop that were designed to prevent you from relaxing. The "Boots" song is one I probably won't forget
  The box actually didn't bother me. But there were a lot of things that really messed with head. They were also still water boarding back then.
  We still had SEALs going through the same school (they have their own now), and we had one that kept escaping. You couldn't really escape though, because this was all training, so you if you did escape, you were supposed to stop and announce it, and let the guards come get you. And then you get punished. So it was stupid to escape. Except this fucking guy didn't give a shit. He just kept escaping. The stripped him, hosed him down, slapped the shit out of him, he didn't care. In the debrief, they said they almost failed him because they thought he wasn't taking it seriously. I thought they weren't taking it seriously if it was that easy to escape
  That wasn't something I ever want go through again.
Gonna starve myself to see if I have the ant smelling superpower
- Let me know how it goes. I honestly would love to know.

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
- 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

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.

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"

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

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.
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?
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.

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.
- Antmeeter. He can always arrange an in-person meeting with an ant. Even if the ant's schedule is full.

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.

I can do this too.

Weirdo.
....I like that about you.
You can, but do you hunt?
- If I smell them in my house, you're damned right I do!

I equate it to the smell of juniper berries.

I could see "gasoline". Maybe peppery.

Gon Freecss moment

I can smell a single bedbug. That smell is terrifying

Yes, what do they smell like?
- It's a sour bitter smell. Hard to describe, but I know it when I smell it. I fled to the SW US to never smell them again
...what do they smell like?
- It's a sour bitter smell. I fled to the SW US so I never smell them again

Maybe it was a particularly stinky ant

Lee Mack can smell dead flies

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tEBL5HR9Cuo&pp=ygUgbGVlIG1hY2sgc21lbGwgYSBmbHkgaW4gdGhlIHJvb20%3D

Damn, I really believed him
This is exactly what I thought about increasing this! I asked my bf what bug it was because I couldn’t remember for sure. If only I’d kept scrolling before asking, lol.
I can smell dead flies. They stink.

If her bf is an anteater, good for her, I'd say. 😏 On a more serious note, I think I have the opposite, cause I've never felt the apparently dreadful smell that stinkbugs emit when threatened or squished.

You evolved to be their ultimate menace.
Oh I have that with mosquitoes, my parents even wake up when they sting, but I feel nothing, I always have some big ones filled with blood in the morning because they feast on me all night long.
- You sure those aren't ticks?