News Microbes

To make a tasty yogurt, just add ants (and their microbes)

Live ants are key to success. Microbes from frozen or dehydrated ants don’t work as well

A jar of milk is photographed from above. Four small ants with black bodies are floating in the milk amid bubbles. The ants' abdomens are brownish red.
Adding four ants to a jar of warmed cow’s milk is a traditional method of making yogurt once popular in Bulgaria and Turkey. Bacteria living on ants, as well as the ants themselves, acidify and thicken the milk into yogurt, a new study shows. 

David Zilber

By Erin Garcia de Jesús

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

In parts of Eurasia, the key to a tangy yogurt treat scurries along the forest floor.