Dr. Omed @tinydoctor.bsky.social

The smell of ants is called pismire. I assure you the scent is quite pungent if there are enough ants.

3 replies 1 reposts 19 likes

Angus McIntyre @angusm.bsky.social [ View ] May 26, 2024 at 17:46 UTC

My understanding is that ‘pismire’ is an archaic name for ants, not the smell they make. It does refer to the smell, though: the word literally translates as “piss ant”.

See for instance allpoetry.com/I-Saw-A-Peacock which contains the line “I saw a pismire swallow up a whale”.

2 replies 1 reposts 2 likes

Rob Cruickshank @robcruickshank.bsky.social [ View ] May 26, 2024 at 16:42 UTC

Another cool ant thing-when I was a kid, it was playground legend that if you got a bunch of ants in a kleenex, and held them up to your ear, you could hear them squeaking. One day, as an adult, I learned about stridulation, and realized that it was a real thing.

0 replies 1 reposts 4 likes

@calizaybak.bsky.social [ View ] May 26, 2024 at 16:09 UTC

"Open a window! It's too damn pismire in here!" is what I'm going to randomly yell from now on.

1 replies 0 reposts 7 likes