After being asked by a friend if there is a way to make yoghurt from scratch, I found this
There are two ways to get the bacteria, that we found; one, using the soil from an anthill, or using crushed ant eggs.
I cannot vouch however for American ants, I don't know if they carry the same bacteria as ants in Turkey.
The claim I want to investigate is whether ant eggs or ant hill soil actually has the bacterium - Lactobacillus bulgaricus or one of its cousins.
The Lactobacilli are ubiquitous and can be found in abundance as oral and mammary flora in humans and other fuzzy things like cows.
Since milk is already pre-doped with Lactobacillus, one can easily start a yogurt culture by doing nothing at all. This leads me to believe that the anthill explanation could be true, but adding pebbles, coins, or polystyrene beads would likely have the same effect. That is, the ants contribute nothing to the enterprise.
From a practical perspective, home microbiology is often a dicey proposition. You will very likely get a good starter from the milk itself or a small amount of human saliva. You can also accidentally wind up culturing equally omnipresent Staphylococcus or less pleasantly even Clostridium botulinum (of botulism fame) or MRSA, which can easily ruin your afternoon.
