Smugglers busted trying to take thousands of queen ants out of Kenya, destined for the exotic pet trade.
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I don't feel that sorry for them, but this is such a high effort way to try to make money. And when it comes to collecting wild queens depending on the species the impact might not be an issue. Really the big issue is spreading invasive species and not having any respect for the laws of Kenya.
Personally I don't think anyone "needs" to keep exotic ants. But, I also think governments can be inattentive either making too strict laws or not enough.
Beyond it being bad to be an ant smuggler, the inattentiveness of governments to insect keeping hobbies makes things like this more likely to happen.
The US import laws are absurd. It's illegal to take, for example Camponotus pennsylvanicus from OH to PA, even though that ant is common in both states. Technically you need a permit. So ant-keepers have to judge when they should bother to apply for permits.
Meanwhile people are selling everything online and it's not OK.
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Beyond it being bad to be an ant smuggler, the inattentiveness of governments to insect keeping hobbies makes things like this more likely to happen.
The US import laws are absurd. It's illegal to take, for example Camponotus pennsylvanicus from OH to PA, even though that ant is common in both states. Technically you need a permit. So ant-keepers have to judge when they should bother to apply for permits.
Meanwhile people are selling everything online and it's not OK.
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Smugglers busted trying to take thousands of queen ants out of Kenya, destined for the exotic pet trade. #ants #WildlifeTrafficking https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/16/africa/ants-smuggling-kenya-teens-arrested-intl/index.html
I really hope the customs officers released those queens and didn't let them just die in the tubes.
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I don't feel that sorry for them, but this is such a high effort way to try to make money. And when it comes to collecting wild queens depending on the species the impact might not be an issue. Really the big issue is spreading invasive species and not having any respect for the laws of Kenya.
Personally I don't think anyone "needs" to keep exotic ants. But, I also think governments can be inattentive either making too strict laws or not enough.
@futurebird I completely agree. @alexwild
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@futurebird I completely agree. @alexwild
The US laws are mostly to protect farmers ants are listed as "pests" but not all ants are pests. You need to go species by species. People who work in research and who follow the letter of the law have a lot of paperwork.
Then there is that exemption for Pogonomyrmex occidentalis (the ants sold in "Uncle Milton" ant farms) you can ship those ants all you want. But only because a company set it up?
IDK it's frustrating.
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I don't feel that sorry for them, but this is such a high effort way to try to make money. And when it comes to collecting wild queens depending on the species the impact might not be an issue. Really the big issue is spreading invasive species and not having any respect for the laws of Kenya.
Personally I don't think anyone "needs" to keep exotic ants. But, I also think governments can be inattentive either making too strict laws or not enough.
@futurebird @alexwild Apropos invasive ants - we have a real problem in Europe: https://www.science.org/content/article/red-fire-ants-dreaded-pest-have-invaded-europe
Spread by human trade (it's unknown if by other products or by traficking). -
I don't feel that sorry for them, but this is such a high effort way to try to make money. And when it comes to collecting wild queens depending on the species the impact might not be an issue. Really the big issue is spreading invasive species and not having any respect for the laws of Kenya.
Personally I don't think anyone "needs" to keep exotic ants. But, I also think governments can be inattentive either making too strict laws or not enough.
@futurebird @NatureMC @alexwild Ants themselves may be less of a problem, but the parasites they could carry may be disastrous. Veroa mites came from imported bees. Those things have decimated bee populations globally since.
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The US laws are mostly to protect farmers ants are listed as "pests" but not all ants are pests. You need to go species by species. People who work in research and who follow the letter of the law have a lot of paperwork.
Then there is that exemption for Pogonomyrmex occidentalis (the ants sold in "Uncle Milton" ant farms) you can ship those ants all you want. But only because a company set it up?
IDK it's frustrating.
@futurebird Yes. I only know that the US laws are very different from the EU in declaring something a pest.
@alexwild -
@futurebird @alexwild Apropos invasive ants - we have a real problem in Europe: https://www.science.org/content/article/red-fire-ants-dreaded-pest-have-invaded-europe
Spread by human trade (it's unknown if by other products or by traficking).I think it's unlikely that antkeepers were responsible for this. Most of the invasive ant events happen due to the exotic plant trade. Greenhouses import plants along with their soil and they bring over so many creatures in the soil: ants, mites, beetles everything.
If someone wants to prevent invasive ants do a better job checking imported plants.
NZ is pretty good about this. The US isn't.
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I don't feel that sorry for them, but this is such a high effort way to try to make money. And when it comes to collecting wild queens depending on the species the impact might not be an issue. Really the big issue is spreading invasive species and not having any respect for the laws of Kenya.
Personally I don't think anyone "needs" to keep exotic ants. But, I also think governments can be inattentive either making too strict laws or not enough.
@futurebird @NatureMC @alexwild I feel sorry for the ants
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@futurebird Yes. I only know that the US laws are very different from the EU in declaring something a pest.
@alexwildUS law makes shipping most ants between STATES illegal. And this makes some sense since the US is very large and there are ants that should not be shipped. But it's also too strict and general.
Although recently getting permits has become easier. But, they don't have people who know enough about ants doing the permits. A seller applied for a permit for a common carpenter ant, and got the permit but both the seller and the government had the species wrong.
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US law makes shipping most ants between STATES illegal. And this makes some sense since the US is very large and there are ants that should not be shipped. But it's also too strict and general.
Although recently getting permits has become easier. But, they don't have people who know enough about ants doing the permits. A seller applied for a permit for a common carpenter ant, and got the permit but both the seller and the government had the species wrong.
Granted it's one of the harder to identify and distinguish species, but the solution has been that the seller just keeps selling an incorrectly identified ant, and if you bring it up online they show up and yell at you (understandable I wouldn't want to have to do the permit process again)
The permit should have been for the whole "species complex" as this ant is one of a group of hard to distinguish carpenter ants that live in the south and make nice pets.
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@futurebird @NatureMC @alexwild I feel sorry for the ants
@Beedazzled @NatureMC @alexwild
The poor queens must be so confused. They get captured and think they might die, then they are in a nice place for a nest... but with too many earthquakes. Too many bright lights.
It's scary for a little bug.
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@futurebird @NatureMC @alexwild Ants themselves may be less of a problem, but the parasites they could carry may be disastrous. Veroa mites came from imported bees. Those things have decimated bee populations globally since.
@Extra_Special_Carbon It is always a problem, if you illegally take speciemens out of their home habitat to a foreign one, as in traficking just for money.
The problem begins with the ethics of the people who do it. It's a kind of colonialist behaviour against nature.
(I would like to recommend Robin Wall Kimmerer's "Braiding Sweetgrass" about a more ethical attitude.)
