Just as for some humans, an alluring smell causes ants to make poor judgements.

Surrounding odours affect the ability of ants to distinguish friend from foe, a new study has found.

The University of Melbourne project shows the importance of smell to ants, which are known to base much of their outward view on the chemical input of smells.

In fact, ants use complex chemical signals to ‘talk’ to each other, communicating their identity and intentions through smell.

In the latest study, researchers observed ant behaviour in perfume-scented containers.

Ants from same and different colonies were observed for greeting and aggressive behaviours.

“Ants brush each other’s antennae, which helps them detect chemical signals that reveal whether the other ant is friend or foe,” Professor Mark Elgar from the Department of Zoology.

“When ants were in a haze of perfume, they brushed their antennae more frequently, but they weren’t necessarily more or less aggressive.”

“Our results show that perfume obscures signal recognition. These odours act as a background noise in much the same way as it’s more difficult to hear someone speaking at a rock concert,” he said

“So background noise is an important factor in influencing the evolution of chemical communication because it requires a precise signal that can be detected reliability against the background noise”

“Perhaps it’s no surprise that worker ants engaging in territorial disputes with adjacent colonies prefer locations with less plants and thus perhaps low levels of olfactory interference,” said Professor Elgar.

The study has been published in Austral Entomology.