this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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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
Wait, everyone can smell dead ants? Pretty sure I can't
They smell like paint thinner
they smell funky, a bit like a salty battery doused with acid, if it makes sense?
I can't smell them, but I can hear them
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, so I don't really know.
Same, never smelled ants.
And I've watched ants a lot when I was a kid. I still do sometimes.
I used to even bring pieces of food from the pantry to give to the ants.
I'm pretty sure that's the smell they're talking about, they make more of it when disturbed or crushed but it's always a tiny bit there. But pretty sure that's the smell they're speaking of.
The reason I doubt that is because I can't smell ants "all the time". And I can definitely smell them when they're disturbed. But most people who talk about smelling ants describe the smell as "damp" or "mouldy" or "earthy", and I have never smelled an ant that smells like that.
The only smell I've ever smelled from them is acrid and acidic, and that only happens when they're disturbed or dead.