Ants are well known for using pheromones to communicate.
Pheromones are present throughout nature in many different living things and are used for many different purposes. Most people, however, associate pheromones with smell and attraction. While there is something to this association, it covers only a tiny part of what pheromones do for a wide variety of animals and plant life.
What They Are
Pheromones are chemicals secreted, excreted or otherwise introduced to the environment. They are intended to communicate something or to induce some specific kind of response, usually in individuals of the same species. People take the ability to express complex thoughts for granted. Other species, however, rely on pheromones to do their communicating for them, and they can, in fact, express a number of different things with different blends of pheromones.
What They Do
Pheromones are used to communicate a wide variety of different things. Ants, for instance, lay down chemical trails of pheromones from their Dufour's gland when the find food. When they have returned to the colony, other ants will then follow the trail of pheromones back to the food, to collect more. Pheromones are also often used for mating and sex. Male mantispids, for example, use pheromones to convince the larger females of the same species that they would make a good mate, rather than a good snack.
What Uses Them
Pheromones have been well studied in insects such as ants and bees, and are often associated with insects for this reason. Pheromones are common to a great deal of life on Earth, however. Some of the smallest organisms on Earth - some of which live inside the human body - use chemicals to communicate. Mammals and reptiles both also use pheromones, as does a of sea life and some plant life.
Pheremones and Humans
There is ample evidence to suggest that humans are no different from many other species in their use of pheromones. Human sweat is one likely source of pheromones, but urine and genital secretions are also likely sources. The synchronization of menstrual cycles among women living in close confines, for example, is likely mediated by pheromones. Sexual preference is also at least partially determined by pheromones.
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