# Cat eating red ants



## Jet Green (Nov 28, 2005)

All of my cats are eating weird things lately. Greg is the only one that's well-adjusted enough to take outdoors, so we hang out on my porch. There are always a few stray red ants, which I dutifully monitor and stomp on before they come near him. (Don't feel bad for them -- Florida red ants are _mean_ and they would stomp you in a heartbeat.) At point, he gets all excited and starts sniffing and licking up the spot where they met their demise. :?: 8O :?: 

They do produce a really interesting smell, like coconut mixed with acetone. I have no idea why. Has anybody else experienced this? Any entomologists out there? Thanks.


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## AddFran (Jul 10, 2004)

Are you talking about the fire ants or the giant red ones with the zebra looking stripes?  8O


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## gunterkat (Aug 19, 2006)

I hope it's fire ants and not the big so-called "velvet" or "cow-killer" ants 8O 
I'm not an entomologist, but I know that dying or dead ants release pheromones. That could be what you're smelling. There's also the formic acid venom. 8O


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## camel24j (Jan 12, 2007)

i remember fire ants i was 3 yrs old when my parents decided to move to Orlando fl and i found an awesome dirt mound to play in ya that was the first lesson in fire ants. my cats i had back then never ate them tho but they loved eating the little anoles and spiders and the palmetto bugs lol.


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## AddFran (Jul 10, 2004)

Eeeewwww palmetto bugs...and rhino beetles and fire ants...ick!!! 
I will never again live in Florida. hehe.


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## Jet Green (Nov 28, 2005)

They certainly look like fire ants, but they don't act like them. I see them all the time, but I haven't been bitten once, whereas fire ants will quietly sneak up your leg and bite you en masse as their way of saying "hello."

But I think I found out what they are:


[url=http://fireant.tamu.edu/antfacts/nativeants.cfm said:


> The Texas Imported Fire Ant Research and Management Project[/url]]Tapinoma _sessile _look somewhat like red imported fire ants, but have a pungent "rotten coconutlike" smell when crushed.


It's got to be them! Here are some photos: http://www.msstate.edu/org/mississippie ... essile.htm

That second link says that they can bite, but apparently it doesn't amount to much. And Wikipedia says they're non-aggressive. So maybe I'll try leaving them in peace and see what happens (as long as they stay outside of the house).

Yes, Florida is infested with vermin and no one in their right mind should live here. The mosquitoes are ridiculously bad this year; we don't even want to use our porch now.

But I think Texas/Lousiana fire ants are even worse than ours...the kind that, if their nest gets flooded, rolls the entirely colony into a ball and floats on the water until they find something to swarm onto, like a person...shudder! 8O


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## gunterkat (Aug 19, 2006)

I saw a couple of those "ant balls" floating in the Katrina flooding and stayed well clear. 8O 
Fireants on land are nasty enough. :x


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## AddFran (Jul 10, 2004)

Fireants are really nasty. I discovered them after standing on an ant hill when I first moved there. That is not something I quickly forgot! 

Wow, I can't believe you called that coconut smell like that. Too funny! It has to be them!


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## Jet Green (Nov 28, 2005)

gunterkat said:


> I saw a couple of those "ant balls" floating in the Katrina flooding and stayed well clear. 8O


YIKES!!! 8O As if you didn't have enough to worry about just then...I hope you and your loved ones (people and animals) came through everything OK.


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## Nell (Apr 7, 2005)

Its stories like these that make me glad I live in WI...

I remember visiting FL and coming across fire ants, giant spiders and being warned not to venture too far because of the Cottonmouths...
And then I get stories from my dad about the giant centipedes, tarantulas, snakes and killer bees in NM...

I'll brave the cold winters up here I think...


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## Jennyphx (Apr 5, 2007)

Formic acid is what you are smelling when you smash ants. How strange that your cat would be attracted to it. I've heard of birds rubbing ants on their feathers but I didn't know cats liked them.


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## Jet Green (Nov 28, 2005)

First we were theorizing that they tasted like spicy food to him. But now I guess he just likes coconut. :lol:


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## Woodsman (Jan 9, 2007)

I'd reckon that if they were fire ants your can't wouldn't still be trying to eat them. :yikes


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