Ants may be little, but they can pack a pungent punch. Many species of ants release strong-smelling chemicals when they’re angry, threatened or being squished. Trap-jaw ants release a chocolatey smell when annoyed, while citronella ants earn their name from the lemony odour they give off.
The scent of the odorous house ant, meanwhile, has been likened to blue cheese or rancid coconuts. This is because the chemicals that it releases, methyl ketones, are also produced by the Penicillium bacteria that ripen blue cheese and grow on rotting coconuts.
Formic acid is another stinky substance emitted by many ant species. Wood ants, for example, produce large quantities of the vinegary substance in their venom gland to spray at prey and attackers.
And when ants die of natural causes, they release oleic acid, the main fatty acid found in olive oil. This gives dead ants a ‘freshly dressed salad’ sort of smell, which acts as a chemical cue for the rest of the colony to clean up the bodies before they start to decompose.
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Scents, however, are just the tip of the iceberg since ants have an entire language based on smell.
Is it possible for us to speak that language? An ad-hoc poll of around 700 people on X, formerly known as Twitter, revealed that only 20 per cent of respondents claimed an ability to smell ants. The rest were a bit bamboozled.
This imbalance may simply reflect a lack of curiosity – after all, many people have never tried to smell an ant – but genetics is also likely to play a role.
Just as some people are unable to sniff out ‘asparagus urine’ due to a mutation in a key smell-related gene, so too a blip in the genetic code may prevent some people from detecting key ant scents.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Phoebe Farrell via email) 'Can you smell ants?'
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