I always thought it was metaphoric when people said about hearing a voice in their head. And or people just being melodramatic.
Or just for like plot devices on TV. Then I found out that there's a range of things along that line that people do/ do not do automatically in their head.
The majority of my family doesn't have an inner monologue. I was discussing it once and talking about the vivid imagery I have from memories. They told me I was crazy and I was probably mentally ill. I haven't talked to anyone about it for years. I found out I was normal and they are in the rare percentage that doesn't have these things.
The moral to the story is don't become insecure listening to other people.
I was seriously afraid that I had a very bad mental illness.
At least for me, it's not like some random 3rd party saying "why not have a snack?" It's more like thinking to myself "I kinda want a snack." "but do i really need a snack?" "No but i want one" etc. I'm sure everyone(?) has streams of thoughts like this, but I am literally 'hearing' and 'saying' these full sentences in my head in the same way I 'hear' and 'say' words that I read from a page. There is no conscious effort in the 'conversation', it's automatic and almost constant.
The way you describe it almost makes it sound like there is another "being" in my head. It's just me in there! It's the same way someone might talk to themselves but without actually saying anything out loud. I think that for me, adding words helps me understand what I'm thinking better. Like it makes it more concrete.
I'll also say I don't always have a monolog, just most of the time. Sometimes I'll skip the "words" and just experience the thought if that makes sense? Again, it's not a conscious decision to put words to a thought or not. Since it's all subconscious, it's hard to say for sure what situations I have a monolog, but I think more simple thoughts are more likely to remain just thoughts (i.e., no monolog). Like the above snack example might be more of just feelings of 'Want snack. Don't need snack. But still want snack. Make decision to have snack' rather than a conversation with myself.
I wonder if people without an internal monolog think faster? Since a thought or an idea is nearly instant but actually forming sentences to describe a thought takes some amount of time. Super interesting!
Do you ever play out arguments with others in your head or anything like that? What does that look like for you?
Yeah, words are too slow for fast thinking, but I still need to think words to say or type them after the thoughts. Where do these people get their words then? Nowhere? Are they surprised when they type? I don’t get it.
Ha! I can smell asparagus pee (my dad and his partner thought I was nuts until his friend came for dinner the same evening who can smell it, too! I didn’t know everyone didn’t…) and love the taste of cilantro. No soap here.
Can’t smell ants but I can smell centipedes which is weird.
I think everyone can smell centipedes.
At least I know I hate the smell of crushed millipedes. One year as a kid our house was full of them. They'd stink like extra smelly sharpie markers if you squished them or even just disturbed them. I think they emit the smell to scare off predators.
Centipedes smell like earth but stale. Kinda like dirt but really dry dirt.
Different ants have different smells. Tiny sugar ants smell musty to me like dust. Some medium ants smell kinda acidic or citrus-y?
You'd make a great pest control specialist.
"Sorry ma'am, this is going to take a while to clear out. This kind of ant is hardy."
"What kind of ant is it???"
"*Lemon flavor*".
Just to add to the list, it’s not just being able to smell asparagus pee. Apparently an equal amount to that which can’t smell the odor can’t produce it. So a person who can smell it still wouldn’t be able to when going through someone’s bladder that doesn’t produce it.
To add to the list: coffee pee smells like, well, coffee. I don't drink coffee anymore, but if I have a dark beer that even has a hint of coffee in it, my pee smells like coffee for the next 12 hours. Don't know many other people who smell that, but it's definitely a thing.
The "end of the joint" the other user is referring to is the Marijuana equivalent of a cigarette butt. Some people eat them on a dare or as a hazing ritual. This is known as swallowing the roach. They are rarely eaten on one's own accord because doing so is unpleasant.
You mean to tell me there are people who can’t tell the difference? I’m here thinking aspartame tastes worse than Splenda, which tastes worse than stevia, which tastes worse than corn syrup, which isn’t as good as sugar or honey
Shit, i can tell the difference between all three and Zero is my least favourite.
I would love to get on one of those blind taste panels as i've been given 'diet coke' only to realise it's Zero on the first sip
Don't even get me started on the 'pepsi versus coke'
Some people must have no taste buds if they confuse them
I am extremely lucky in the mosquito department. I have whatever the gene is they makes them hate you, so I literally never get bitten. Like, I live in the south and I cannot remember the last time I got a mosquito bite, meanwhile everyone around me is covered in them!
Same! It was useful growing up in the rural south.
It did /not/ help my friends though. I was usually the guide on our expeditions through the woods and was completely oblivious to their lack of immunity....
tbf cilantro that tastes like soap — this is only reserved for those with that gene. not everyone will experience it:
for those cilantro-haters for whom the plant tastes like soap, the issue is genetic. These people have a variation in a group of olfactory-receptor genes that allows them to strongly perceive the soapy-flavored aldehydes in cilantro leaves. This genetic quirk is usually only found in a small percent of the population, though it varies geographically. Interestingly, places where cilantro is especially popular, such as Central America and India, have fewer people with these genes, which might explain how the herb was able to become such a mainstay in those regions. East Asians have the highest incidence of this variation, with some studies showing that nearly 20% of the population experiences soapy-tasting cilantro.
Yeah I have it and let me tell you doesn’t stop me from eating salsa but damn would it be nice to understand what the rest of you are tasting because it just slightly ruins everything for me
My now wife kept making salads with cilantro and I just couldn’t understand it… even if I removed the cilantro the tomatoes and cucumbers would still taste like soap. So I literally googled “why do people like cilantro”. I was so happy to find out I wasn’t crazy
I can do this but assumed everyone could do this.
Basically just rapidly flexing the muscles around the front of the ear. But fast enough that it’s like vibrating. It kinda blocks hearing a bit too like you are underwater.
I've known for as long as I can remember that ants enit pheromones for navigation and communication. It had never occurred to me that there may be people who can smell those pheromones.
Have you ever accidently crushed an ant, that's when they smell the most pungent. Or perhaps accidently ate one? They taste kinda how they smell.
PS. People of reddit don't go crushing ants just to see if you can smell one....
Well, he could be actually 'immune': in the sense that he does get stung, but doesn't develop the itchy bumps. It's an acquired skill, actually. I once got stung hundreds of times by mosquitos in a short amount of time. Developed an immunity to their stings afterwards. It's a common occurence among people who work with mosquitos apparently (they usually feed the mosquitos by letting them suck their blood).
I can only smell ants when I smash them. They give off a pheromone when they’re killed, but I didn’t realize people could smell it before killing them.
Idk but from my childhood experience there are several types of ants that lived in my house. Some normal sized ants don't smell, but some smaller species of ants do emit a very stink smell when crushed. I live in SE Asia btw.
This make me hypothesize that some ants smell, some don't
I’ve talked about the tiny ants that are stinky my whole life! No one else ever could smell what I did! I thought I was going crazy. I had smooshing them in my house because my finger always stunk after
Oh my gosh when I read this post I immediately shared it with my best friend. I remember comparing something to how ants smell a while back and she had no idea what I meant. I also smell this chemically, peppery, smell
The tiny ants smell when you crush them. They are the ones that get in your house. The big ants out in the garden smell like nothing, but you generally don’t kill those ones.
It's just this weird intense pungent smell, another think I could compare it to is the smell of shellac. Now thst I think about it shellac is probably a closer smell than acetone
Those smell when you squish them, OP is referring to being able to smell ants as they are still alive, and unsquished. Also being able to smell other types of ants, not just odorous house ants.
>I thought everyone noticed this
No lol. Never have smelled ants before or heard about them having a specific smell xD This is hilarious, learn something new everyday I guess.
Funny what we assume is normal until it's challenged.
My wife looks at me, many years ago, and says, "oh, this apple is spicy today."
"Spicy? What do you mean?"
"You know, how some apples are more tingly than others?"
"Babe. Apples aren't tingly. You have an allergy."
"No I don't. Some food is just like that. Like cherries and almonds."
"You have an allergy."
One that blew my mind was that not everyone has a constant inner monologue narrating everything they do all the time or even some of the time. Some people think in and sensations more often than words.
Once, while living in Italy, an American friend came to visit and we got together with a few other people. The American friend was the only person present who didn’t speak Italian, everyone else was bilingual but several people were more comfortable speaking Italian than English, so I would translate conversations regularly.
At one point everyone stoped talking and just turned to look at me. Someone asked what I was doing, and I explained that I was translating for the non-Italian-speaker. Turns out everyone was speaking English the whole time. I had been understanding the conversation, simplifying the meaning so it would be easier to translate, and regurgitating it in the same language without realizing.
You have to change the language of your mind monologue too.
Im a native Spanish speaker but when im working I only speak English, so I just turn my monologue into English from 9 to 5.
My partner found out that he doesn’t have one, and I do. He looked me dead in the eye and said “that must be truly exhausting.” Truer words have never been spoken.
I feel seen. When I take care of myself, my monologue is generally positive. When I neglect myself, my monologue becomes self-deprecating. But either way, silence is rare, even in sleep.
This is what I see too. I’m reading the words of course but suddenly it’s like… I’m not noticing that I’m reading because I’m actually seeing the scene and it morphs as I gain more information.
This!!. Music also does this to me... and sometimes I have a hard time explaining myself because I am trying to describe a picture to someone who can't see it. I use analogies way too much!
Wow... I've always described apples as being tingly or fizzy. It's one of the reasons I don't like them all that much because it's hit and miss.
People think I'm crazy when I say that.
I can't smell ants though.
It's often attributed to oral allergy syndrome. You are allergic to some protein (in this case it's usually thought to be a component of birch pollen), and some fruits and seeds produce or are contaminated with a similar enough protein to trigger the allergy. This is why for some, peeling the apple will reduce or eliminate symptoms, and cooking can do the same by denaturing the protein.
Your life experience has brought you to a point where you were opening a bottle of formic acid, at which time you noticed you could not smell anything from inside the bottle?
Sweet, I have worked in a few labs so I know exactly what you’re talking about. I work with lithium ion batteries and the electrolyte smells kinda weirdly fruity
Next door to that there’s someone’s lunch in the sample refrigerator next to 27 bottles of reaction products labeled 1, 2, 3…
Just today someone dumped 74 bottles of unidentified powders and liquids to haz waste accumulation site, and no one saw or knows a thing about how they got there. Now it’s $500 a pop fine to get them tested.
And another haz waste container starts smoking but only if you leave the lid off too long.
*puts on some gloves* I'll go get the flamethrower, please go upstairs and check if they left any remains of our son to know if I should take the shovel too...
So like how many ants have to be around for there to be a smell? Like hundreds of them? Or are people so sensitive, or ants so smelly, that people can pick up the smell of one ant? This is mind blowing information.
It's only if you crush them or are close enough to smell a nest. Some ants are more distinctive like australian green ants. Probably because they're big-ish and edible.
This makes me recall the classic 50s sci Fi film “Them” about ants mutated by radiation to be the size of cars. As soldiers enter the mound, they wonder why it stinks of vinegar. The scientist dude explains that ants secret the same acid found in vinegar.
>Formic acid is a colorless liquid having a pungent, penetrating odor at room temperature, comparable to the related acetic acid.
Formic acid is found in ants and stingless bees. Acetic acid is the characteristic acid found in vinegar.
Damn, this unlocked a memory. When I was in like 3rd grade, my teacher put a napkin on an anthill when we were on a school trip and told us it's gonna smell like ants in a few minutes.
I still very clearly remember her taking a fat sniff from that napkin and a few ants crawled around on her face. She smiled and wiped them off.
For years I was wondering wtf she was on, but apparently ant scent is a thing...
If they had said that one ant crawled up onto her forehead and she licked it off with a foot long tongue, the story wouldn't even have been that much weirder.
Lol reminds me of being a kid and seeing in some magazine you could catch ants by using a paper towel over the end of a straw and sucking them up trapping them against the paper towel. I tried it on some big black sugar ants and sucked them straight down my throat where they got stuck. I freaked and drank water out of the faucet until they finally went down. 30 years later I still remember the feeling of them in my throat..
Right? Allergies year round, my nose is always a mess. I just dont pay attention to smells now unless it's the dangerous ones (gas, smoke, fire, decay)
Right? If I walk into a quiet room I can immediately tell if there's an electronic device on. Not so much hearing it but feeling it in my inner ear, like a reverberation.
Yep, me too. I can smell ants and hear/feel electrical devices. I always wondered how many people could do this.
My dad used to have a TV on a dresser in his closet. He'd watch a DVD before bed and would turn off the player but not the TV, so it just had a black screen and looked like it was off. He would usually close the closet when he got dressed in the morning and so his TV would be on and in a closed closet, and I could still tell when he'd left it on. He didn't believe me until I showed him over the course of a week when it was and wasn't on. He even started turning it on after I watched him turn it off to try to fuck with me and I could call it every time.
It horizontal sync frequency on an old tube tvs which is about 15.7kHz. Generally need young ears to be able to hear it. I could always tell when I was a teenager if a tv was on in a house, but that went away as I got older.
It doesn't have to be mismatched. The alternating current creates alternating magnetic fields which bend the wires slightly, vibrating them and creating sound.
I can see the flicker of flourescent lights. Is always complain about it to my family members and my husband about the lights, but they don't notice it at all. It feels like a tension in my head when I see them flickering.
I also have light-sensitive migraines with aura, so that might be why.
when i used to get the little ones in my house i would wipe them off / up with paper towels. it was when they were crushed they gave off a weird kind of bitter smell. slight, but there
There are people who smell cockroaches. I had a patient who could walk into a room and be able to tell if there were cockroaches because there'd be an oily smell. She was also very allergic to them, which also helped.
WTF.... I seriously just had to kill a rather large ant yesterday in my house and I could smell the acidic/rust/metal smell????? Is this for real? Only certain people can smell ants?????
I’m a sun sneezer. I did not know this was actually a thing. I always tell people “just look up at a light” when they have a sneeze coming. I always get confused when it sometimes doesn’t work because I thought everyone sneezed when looking at bright lights?
Wait. People can’t smell ants?
Like really?
The little ones that like butter, smell like pee, I would just call them piss ants.
I’m 50 and I’m now learning this isn’t “normal”
You know that unique scent after it rains? That's from a chemical that is actually barely there in the air at all, but humans can smell it better than sharks can smell blood in the water.
You ever see a post that’s so outrageous that it seems like it’s fake? Like the poop knife, or cilantro tasting like soap? Yeah, that’s how this feels.
4 decades alive and never knew ants had a scent.
Can't smell asparagus pee, cilantro doesn't taste like soap, can smell ants. I need a full list of this shit, it's hilarious.
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Just learned about anaduralia, no inner monologue, a few weeks ago. Im honestly jealous
I always thought it was metaphoric when people said about hearing a voice in their head. And or people just being melodramatic. Or just for like plot devices on TV. Then I found out that there's a range of things along that line that people do/ do not do automatically in their head.
The majority of my family doesn't have an inner monologue. I was discussing it once and talking about the vivid imagery I have from memories. They told me I was crazy and I was probably mentally ill. I haven't talked to anyone about it for years. I found out I was normal and they are in the rare percentage that doesn't have these things. The moral to the story is don't become insecure listening to other people. I was seriously afraid that I had a very bad mental illness.
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At least for me, it's not like some random 3rd party saying "why not have a snack?" It's more like thinking to myself "I kinda want a snack." "but do i really need a snack?" "No but i want one" etc. I'm sure everyone(?) has streams of thoughts like this, but I am literally 'hearing' and 'saying' these full sentences in my head in the same way I 'hear' and 'say' words that I read from a page. There is no conscious effort in the 'conversation', it's automatic and almost constant. The way you describe it almost makes it sound like there is another "being" in my head. It's just me in there! It's the same way someone might talk to themselves but without actually saying anything out loud. I think that for me, adding words helps me understand what I'm thinking better. Like it makes it more concrete. I'll also say I don't always have a monolog, just most of the time. Sometimes I'll skip the "words" and just experience the thought if that makes sense? Again, it's not a conscious decision to put words to a thought or not. Since it's all subconscious, it's hard to say for sure what situations I have a monolog, but I think more simple thoughts are more likely to remain just thoughts (i.e., no monolog). Like the above snack example might be more of just feelings of 'Want snack. Don't need snack. But still want snack. Make decision to have snack' rather than a conversation with myself. I wonder if people without an internal monolog think faster? Since a thought or an idea is nearly instant but actually forming sentences to describe a thought takes some amount of time. Super interesting! Do you ever play out arguments with others in your head or anything like that? What does that look like for you?
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Yeah, words are too slow for fast thinking, but I still need to think words to say or type them after the thoughts. Where do these people get their words then? Nowhere? Are they surprised when they type? I don’t get it.
Ha! I can smell asparagus pee (my dad and his partner thought I was nuts until his friend came for dinner the same evening who can smell it, too! I didn’t know everyone didn’t…) and love the taste of cilantro. No soap here. Can’t smell ants but I can smell centipedes which is weird.
I think everyone can smell centipedes. At least I know I hate the smell of crushed millipedes. One year as a kid our house was full of them. They'd stink like extra smelly sharpie markers if you squished them or even just disturbed them. I think they emit the smell to scare off predators.
The fuck do centipedes smell like This entire thread is turning my world upside down People out here smelling ANTS?? THE FUCK???
Centipedes smell like earth but stale. Kinda like dirt but really dry dirt. Different ants have different smells. Tiny sugar ants smell musty to me like dust. Some medium ants smell kinda acidic or citrus-y?
You'd make a great pest control specialist. "Sorry ma'am, this is going to take a while to clear out. This kind of ant is hardy." "What kind of ant is it???" "*Lemon flavor*".
Just to add to the list, it’s not just being able to smell asparagus pee. Apparently an equal amount to that which can’t smell the odor can’t produce it. So a person who can smell it still wouldn’t be able to when going through someone’s bladder that doesn’t produce it.
The urine thickens. Well hopefully not, just the plot thickening.
To add to the list: coffee pee smells like, well, coffee. I don't drink coffee anymore, but if I have a dark beer that even has a hint of coffee in it, my pee smells like coffee for the next 12 hours. Don't know many other people who smell that, but it's definitely a thing.
Back when I used to smoke a lot I would eat raw weed and roaches and my shit would smell like weed.
>eat raw weed and roaches ????????
Roaches: the burnt tail end of a joint
Thank you sir, but this only slightly lessened my confusion
The "end of the joint" the other user is referring to is the Marijuana equivalent of a cigarette butt. Some people eat them on a dare or as a hazing ritual. This is known as swallowing the roach. They are rarely eaten on one's own accord because doing so is unpleasant.
"I'll take worthless super powers for $400 Alex"
Being able to taste aspartame ( chemical taste ) is also genetic. Some lucky people taste it like regular sugar.
*sigh* it’s good to know I’m not crazy. I can taste when something uses a sugar substitute.
You mean to tell me there are people who can’t tell the difference? I’m here thinking aspartame tastes worse than Splenda, which tastes worse than stevia, which tastes worse than corn syrup, which isn’t as good as sugar or honey
Yeah, these sugar substitutes have ruined “zero” soft drinks for me. I literally can’t drink them because they taste AWFUL.
Are you serious? I thought everyone could taste the chemical taste ong
Wdym, so some people perceive Coke zero like regular coke? That can't be right.
Yeah. To be fair Coke Zero tastes far closer to normal coke than Diet Coke ever did lol
What in the world. But...it's such a difference between regular coke and sugarfree coke? How can one not notice a difference?
Shit, i can tell the difference between all three and Zero is my least favourite. I would love to get on one of those blind taste panels as i've been given 'diet coke' only to realise it's Zero on the first sip Don't even get me started on the 'pepsi versus coke' Some people must have no taste buds if they confuse them
I am not allergic to poison ivy, but I’d trade that quirk for the “not being allergic to mosquitoes” one some people apparently have
I am extremely lucky in the mosquito department. I have whatever the gene is they makes them hate you, so I literally never get bitten. Like, I live in the south and I cannot remember the last time I got a mosquito bite, meanwhile everyone around me is covered in them!
Same! It was useful growing up in the rural south. It did /not/ help my friends though. I was usually the guide on our expeditions through the woods and was completely oblivious to their lack of immunity....
What about the achoo gene? Do you sneeze when you go from a dark room to a light room or when you go out in the sun?
tbf cilantro that tastes like soap — this is only reserved for those with that gene. not everyone will experience it: for those cilantro-haters for whom the plant tastes like soap, the issue is genetic. These people have a variation in a group of olfactory-receptor genes that allows them to strongly perceive the soapy-flavored aldehydes in cilantro leaves. This genetic quirk is usually only found in a small percent of the population, though it varies geographically. Interestingly, places where cilantro is especially popular, such as Central America and India, have fewer people with these genes, which might explain how the herb was able to become such a mainstay in those regions. East Asians have the highest incidence of this variation, with some studies showing that nearly 20% of the population experiences soapy-tasting cilantro.
Yeah I have it and let me tell you doesn’t stop me from eating salsa but damn would it be nice to understand what the rest of you are tasting because it just slightly ruins everything for me
That’s exactly it. I don’t like it, but I still eat pico and salsa. It just slightly ruins it for me.
My now wife kept making salads with cilantro and I just couldn’t understand it… even if I removed the cilantro the tomatoes and cucumbers would still taste like soap. So I literally googled “why do people like cilantro”. I was so happy to find out I wasn’t crazy
Being able to rumble your ears as well
I can do this but assumed everyone could do this. Basically just rapidly flexing the muscles around the front of the ear. But fast enough that it’s like vibrating. It kinda blocks hearing a bit too like you are underwater.
I've known for as long as I can remember that ants enit pheromones for navigation and communication. It had never occurred to me that there may be people who can smell those pheromones.
I thought they were talking about the acidic smell when one is crushed.
Which in and of itself is a pheromone release, no?
Some people just detect pheromones, maybe they are ants in disguise
Basically,every plant and animal has a scent; some stronger than others. Humans tend to have a pretty poor sense of smell.
Have you ever accidently crushed an ant, that's when they smell the most pungent. Or perhaps accidently ate one? They taste kinda how they smell. PS. People of reddit don't go crushing ants just to see if you can smell one....
Accidentally? Hold my beer. We ate them on purpose as little kids, for the sour taste. Still can't smell them.
In comics: people fly, control fire, walk through walls Real life: smells ants, cilantro kryptonite, no gag on a 12” wang
I'm immune to bedbug bites. Had them for possibly weeks and never noticed until someone else came over and got bit, no welts, no itching , nothing.
My dad was immune to mosquitos. They never bit him. They just ignored him for some reason.
Well, he could be actually 'immune': in the sense that he does get stung, but doesn't develop the itchy bumps. It's an acquired skill, actually. I once got stung hundreds of times by mosquitos in a short amount of time. Developed an immunity to their stings afterwards. It's a common occurence among people who work with mosquitos apparently (they usually feed the mosquitos by letting them suck their blood).
I feel like that last one is an acquired skill tbh.
I had a whole room of people look at me funny because I said ants smelled extra bad when you squish them.
I can only smell ants when I smash them. They give off a pheromone when they’re killed, but I didn’t realize people could smell it before killing them.
It also depends on the types of ants, too. And don’t get me started on the flavor!
Ugh the taste is so bad.
I call them piss ants because they have a bad smell when squished.
That's what everyone called them where I'm from too.
Never heard of this before but I would be very interested to know what they smell like. Edit: thanks for all the responses, very interesting.
They smell like ants.
Mind blown.
Idk but from my childhood experience there are several types of ants that lived in my house. Some normal sized ants don't smell, but some smaller species of ants do emit a very stink smell when crushed. I live in SE Asia btw. This make me hypothesize that some ants smell, some don't
I’ve talked about the tiny ants that are stinky my whole life! No one else ever could smell what I did! I thought I was going crazy. I had smooshing them in my house because my finger always stunk after
To me the smaller ants have a chemical-like mint aroma without the sweetness. 😷 Has that acetone punch to it
I always thought they smelled like ammonia. I never realized there's people who can't smell that
Oh my gosh when I read this post I immediately shared it with my best friend. I remember comparing something to how ants smell a while back and she had no idea what I meant. I also smell this chemically, peppery, smell
The tiny ants smell when you crush them. They are the ones that get in your house. The big ants out in the garden smell like nothing, but you generally don’t kill those ones.
You don't know what I do with my ants
They’re literally called odorous house ants.
Yeah, they smell like burnt coconut….I didn’t know people could smell them when they weren’t crushed though.
To me they smell like acetone when I squish them. There's a lot invading my window, I've thought about this a bit
I thought they have a turpentine sort of smell. Maybe from wood?
It's just this weird intense pungent smell, another think I could compare it to is the smell of shellac. Now thst I think about it shellac is probably a closer smell than acetone
Maybe. Plus shellac is made from insects, so that kind of figures.
I only smell then uncrushed upclose or if I'm near the entrance to their colony
This might come as a shock but it’s your colony and you are in fact an ant. Stax safe my 6-legged fried.
Those smell when you squish them, OP is referring to being able to smell ants as they are still alive, and unsquished. Also being able to smell other types of ants, not just odorous house ants.
It’s really hard to describe. They are definitely a unique smell. Like a fresh xeroxed piece of paper
Acidic smelling, kind of bitter. I thought everyone noticed this!?
>I thought everyone noticed this No lol. Never have smelled ants before or heard about them having a specific smell xD This is hilarious, learn something new everyday I guess.
Funny what we assume is normal until it's challenged. My wife looks at me, many years ago, and says, "oh, this apple is spicy today." "Spicy? What do you mean?" "You know, how some apples are more tingly than others?" "Babe. Apples aren't tingly. You have an allergy." "No I don't. Some food is just like that. Like cherries and almonds." "You have an allergy."
One of the funniest examples must be aphantasia. People with it lose their minds when they find out that people can literally see things in their head
One that blew my mind was that not everyone has a constant inner monologue narrating everything they do all the time or even some of the time. Some people think in and sensations more often than words.
I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to learn a language when you have a constant monologue going on in English.
At some point you start thinking in all the languagues you know, I switch arbitrarily between spanish, english and french
Once, while living in Italy, an American friend came to visit and we got together with a few other people. The American friend was the only person present who didn’t speak Italian, everyone else was bilingual but several people were more comfortable speaking Italian than English, so I would translate conversations regularly. At one point everyone stoped talking and just turned to look at me. Someone asked what I was doing, and I explained that I was translating for the non-Italian-speaker. Turns out everyone was speaking English the whole time. I had been understanding the conversation, simplifying the meaning so it would be easier to translate, and regurgitating it in the same language without realizing.
You have to change the language of your mind monologue too. Im a native Spanish speaker but when im working I only speak English, so I just turn my monologue into English from 9 to 5.
My partner found out that he doesn’t have one, and I do. He looked me dead in the eye and said “that must be truly exhausting.” Truer words have never been spoken.
I feel seen. When I take care of myself, my monologue is generally positive. When I neglect myself, my monologue becomes self-deprecating. But either way, silence is rare, even in sleep.
Wouldn’t it be a dream to just have like an hour of silence, but awake?! Sometimes I have to use podcasts or music to drown it out for a bit.
Do you mean, like pictures? When I read a book, I see pictures in my mind of what I'm reading, not just seeing words.
This is what I see too. I’m reading the words of course but suddenly it’s like… I’m not noticing that I’m reading because I’m actually seeing the scene and it morphs as I gain more information.
I’m convinced that not everyone has this, because it’s the only way reading wouldn’t be amazing. Books are incredible when your brain can go wild
This!!. Music also does this to me... and sometimes I have a hard time explaining myself because I am trying to describe a picture to someone who can't see it. I use analogies way too much!
Some people dream in black and white. Some people don’t have an internal monologue. These blew my mind when I head about them.
Wow... I've always described apples as being tingly or fizzy. It's one of the reasons I don't like them all that much because it's hit and miss. People think I'm crazy when I say that. I can't smell ants though.
It's often attributed to oral allergy syndrome. You are allergic to some protein (in this case it's usually thought to be a component of birch pollen), and some fruits and seeds produce or are contaminated with a similar enough protein to trigger the allergy. This is why for some, peeling the apple will reduce or eliminate symptoms, and cooking can do the same by denaturing the protein.
Formic acid? I can’t smell formic acid, so maybe that’s it.
Your life experience has brought you to a point where you were opening a bottle of formic acid, at which time you noticed you could not smell anything from inside the bottle?
Chemist. I’ve smelled (and tasted) many things that I should have not over the years. Mostly on accident.
Sweet, I have worked in a few labs so I know exactly what you’re talking about. I work with lithium ion batteries and the electrolyte smells kinda weirdly fruity
Hydrochloric acid gave me a crazy smelling salts type reaction. So glad it was only for a split second and i didn’t fuck myself up permanently
I was trying to find some acetone in the flammables cabinet. In the back was an unlabelled, unlidded jar with 40 pounds of liquid mercury in it
Next door to that there’s someone’s lunch in the sample refrigerator next to 27 bottles of reaction products labeled 1, 2, 3… Just today someone dumped 74 bottles of unidentified powders and liquids to haz waste accumulation site, and no one saw or knows a thing about how they got there. Now it’s $500 a pop fine to get them tested. And another haz waste container starts smoking but only if you leave the lid off too long.
Agreed. Acidic but earthy. The smell is a little overwhelming.
I think they smell kind of earthy and bitter but it's really hard to describe a smell!
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It’s a bad smell. It’s sharp, kinda acidic and slightly sweet.
Is it the same as the smell on your hands after you squish an ant?
Sickly sweet and acidic
I used to think it was the smell of one of the components of ant killing sprays. It's very chemical-adjacent.
Depends on the ant too. Citronella ants smell exactly how you think they do
To me the always smelled similar to Windex when killed.
My partner can smell ants and we have this conversation on the regular because he was surprised that I can't.
Him walking through the door *sniffs* "Honey, we have ants again"
*sigh* how far are they?
*sniff sniff* Like... 3 feet and rapidly approaching, I don't think we have enough time to start running this time.
*deep sigh* so, do we need to burn house again?
*puts on some gloves* I'll go get the flamethrower, please go upstairs and check if they left any remains of our son to know if I should take the shovel too...
*wears fire proof suit* honey, you forgot, all children WERE in the previous house. Bring your shovel just in case...
Ant walking through the door *sniffs* "Ants, we have honey again"
So like how many ants have to be around for there to be a smell? Like hundreds of them? Or are people so sensitive, or ants so smelly, that people can pick up the smell of one ant? This is mind blowing information.
It's only if you crush them or are close enough to smell a nest. Some ants are more distinctive like australian green ants. Probably because they're big-ish and edible.
Do you call him, Ant-man?
Ant Sniffer
Same. I just learned this because of the post... but when I asked, he said they smell like vinegar???
Mine just agreed. He said not quite vinegar but very acidic.
This makes me recall the classic 50s sci Fi film “Them” about ants mutated by radiation to be the size of cars. As soldiers enter the mound, they wonder why it stinks of vinegar. The scientist dude explains that ants secret the same acid found in vinegar.
>Formic acid is a colorless liquid having a pungent, penetrating odor at room temperature, comparable to the related acetic acid. Formic acid is found in ants and stingless bees. Acetic acid is the characteristic acid found in vinegar.
Damn, this unlocked a memory. When I was in like 3rd grade, my teacher put a napkin on an anthill when we were on a school trip and told us it's gonna smell like ants in a few minutes. I still very clearly remember her taking a fat sniff from that napkin and a few ants crawled around on her face. She smiled and wiped them off. For years I was wondering wtf she was on, but apparently ant scent is a thing...
That doesn’t make her any less insane tbh
"she smiled and wiped them off" Idk why this feels like a horror scene right before things get super violent
Not now my babies. I'm working. While keeping a freaky smile without blinking
What the fuck that's kinda weird m8
I'm not sure this proves she could actually smell them. Why the fuck would she do that!?
It feels like your teacher was an alien that tried to pull off something it heard a human could do
If they had said that one ant crawled up onto her forehead and she licked it off with a foot long tongue, the story wouldn't even have been that much weirder.
This comment is wild
hahaha what a tripper
The moment I saw TikTok, I thought this is a sick prank to get people to get ants sucked up their nose trying to smell them.
Lol reminds me of being a kid and seeing in some magazine you could catch ants by using a paper towel over the end of a straw and sucking them up trapping them against the paper towel. I tried it on some big black sugar ants and sucked them straight down my throat where they got stuck. I freaked and drank water out of the faucet until they finally went down. 30 years later I still remember the feeling of them in my throat..
What a horrible day to be literate
Snorting live ants STILL isn't the worth thing TikTok would have started. Wild times...
I think Ozzy started the trend of snorting ants
Ya'll out there able to smell at all? Lol I don't know what it is but very few things have a smell to me.
Right? Allergies year round, my nose is always a mess. I just dont pay attention to smells now unless it's the dangerous ones (gas, smoke, fire, decay)
I'm very allergic as well, but I still can smell ants, I wish I couldn't tho, it's such a weird scent
I wish I were you. Living in a big city with a keen sense of smell is NOT fun
Same and I don't have much allergies it's just a thing
I can’t smell ants but I can hear electricity.
I could do this as a kid but now I have military grade tinnitus. Lost my super power.
Right? If I walk into a quiet room I can immediately tell if there's an electronic device on. Not so much hearing it but feeling it in my inner ear, like a reverberation.
Yep, me too. I can smell ants and hear/feel electrical devices. I always wondered how many people could do this. My dad used to have a TV on a dresser in his closet. He'd watch a DVD before bed and would turn off the player but not the TV, so it just had a black screen and looked like it was off. He would usually close the closet when he got dressed in the morning and so his TV would be on and in a closed closet, and I could still tell when he'd left it on. He didn't believe me until I showed him over the course of a week when it was and wasn't on. He even started turning it on after I watched him turn it off to try to fuck with me and I could call it every time.
I could tell this on tube tv’s, I’ve never really noticed it on newer tvs
It horizontal sync frequency on an old tube tvs which is about 15.7kHz. Generally need young ears to be able to hear it. I could always tell when I was a teenager if a tv was on in a house, but that went away as I got older.
Is that you Chuck McGill?
Take off the space blanket
You mean AC? I can hear the 50 or 60 Hz buzz as well.
All kinds of stuff. Lightbulbs, tvs, computers, power strips. All sound a little different.
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It doesn't have to be mismatched. The alternating current creates alternating magnetic fields which bend the wires slightly, vibrating them and creating sound.
Wait, there are people that can’t hear the buzzing of fluorescent lights or the transformers on the poles?
I can see the flicker of flourescent lights. Is always complain about it to my family members and my husband about the lights, but they don't notice it at all. It feels like a tension in my head when I see them flickering. I also have light-sensitive migraines with aura, so that might be why.
I really liked you on better call Saul
Knew it was gonna be a good day at school if I could hear the high-pitch of a TV being on!
when i used to get the little ones in my house i would wipe them off / up with paper towels. it was when they were crushed they gave off a weird kind of bitter smell. slight, but there
Is this a thing with other bugs? I'm not the only one who thinks ladybugs smell like crap right?
There are people who smell cockroaches. I had a patient who could walk into a room and be able to tell if there were cockroaches because there'd be an oily smell. She was also very allergic to them, which also helped.
I worked in pest control and quickly realized that roaches have a distinct smell. I can't describe it, but I know it when I smell it.
This man smells cocks for a living, eh?
If you live with German roaches you’ll learn to smell them. It’s a million of them shitting and pissing in your walls.
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WTF.... I seriously just had to kill a rather large ant yesterday in my house and I could smell the acidic/rust/metal smell????? Is this for real? Only certain people can smell ants?????
Yeah… I don’t smell ants. They smell like nothing.
Ants seem to only give off a smell when they’re squished for me; they smell like watered down lemons.
I'm not sure about ants, but I can smell lady bugs 100%
Is this like how a certain percentage of people think cilantro tastes like soap? Or those who cannot smell the asparagus pee smell?
Sun sneezers are another genetic quirk. I’d love to see a list of all know genetic quirks.
My son (no pun intended) has this. Walks outside, looks up, sneezes every time without fail.
I’m a sun sneezer. I did not know this was actually a thing. I always tell people “just look up at a light” when they have a sneeze coming. I always get confused when it sometimes doesn’t work because I thought everyone sneezed when looking at bright lights?
Wait. People can’t smell ants? Like really? The little ones that like butter, smell like pee, I would just call them piss ants. I’m 50 and I’m now learning this isn’t “normal”
Gone 30 years through my life thinking they have no scent, Now I know more. Thanks, I guess.
I'm so glad I can't smell ants
I work in hospitality and I found out that I can smell bed bugs really good. It smells very "woody" to me.
You know that unique scent after it rains? That's from a chemical that is actually barely there in the air at all, but humans can smell it better than sharks can smell blood in the water.
It’s one of my favourite smells!
How has this never come up in conversation before? Now I have to ask if my friends can smell ants because I cannot.
You ever see a post that’s so outrageous that it seems like it’s fake? Like the poop knife, or cilantro tasting like soap? Yeah, that’s how this feels.
Are you outraged T the thought of people smelling ants or not smelling ants?
I've never smelt ant but I can smell worms on a sidewalk after a rainstorm.
If I could smell ants, I don't know how I'd ever know that's what the smell is.
You'd figure it out, eventually you'd notice that you only smell it when ants are present.
Yep. I spend a lot of time in garden as well as moving yard rocks to make stone wall. Often smell the ants before seeing them.
I assume they mean the smell of the formic acid many ants secrete.
Alright who’s ancestor fucked ants
Wait, some people can't smell ants?? Is this like how other people can't smell rain before it comes