(bolivia) bolivian stink-ants

dear bill nye the science guy,

you're not going to believe this (i didn't until i smelled for myself). here in santa cruz there is a species of ant that stinks. and when i say stink, i mean that you can smell a single ant from more than 10 ft away! this is no exaggeration. my sister was telling me about these ants and how when they get in the kitchen they smell up the whole room, and after she kills them and throws away the paper towels, she immediately has to take out the trash. the smell is uncannily similar to bad halitosis. today i was sitting on the toilet (upstairs) and i smelled the same smell she'd forced me to experience a couple days ago when two such ants invaded her kitchen. i thought there can't possibly be an ant in this bathroom - there's nothing there for it to eat, and she said they never come upstairs. but i got up and looked at the base of the toliet, and there it was. one lone ant hanging out on the toilet. i struggled for a long time trying to figure out what to do with it. the easy solution is just to pick it up in a piece of toliet paper and flush it down the toilet, but in bolivia, you're not supposed to put toilet paper in the toilet. i did anyway. down the drain it went. and the smell went away.

bill, you know about biology. please tell me how it's possible that a tiny little ant, no more than 3/4 cm long, can stink up a room! it's worth writing home about.

astonished in bolivia