Kenyan agents bust plot to smuggle giant ants for sale to foreign insect lovers

Two Formica polyctena red wood ants are pictured in this file photo. (Richard Bartz / Creative Commons)

Four smugglers caught trying to transport thousands of live ants out of Kenya for sale on exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia will be sentenced for trafficking wildlife in a case being hailed as a milestone by the Kenya Wildlife Service.

The KWS said authorities had intercepted live queen ants, including from the sought-after Messor Cephalotes species also known as the Giant African Harvester Ant, concealed in modified test tubes and syringes.

“Investigations revealed that the test tubes had been designed to sustain the ants for up to two months and evade airport security detection,” the KWS said in a statement, describing this as “premeditated and well-executed.”

While some people may see ants as a picnic-ruining nuisance, aficionados enjoy keeping them in formicariums, transparent cases where they can watch them building complex colonies.

A court document seen by Reuters stated that the authorities had intercepted about 5,000 queens packed in 2,244 containers, with a street value of about 1 million Kenyan shillings (US$7,800).

Two Belgians, one Vietnamese and one Kenyan pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of illegal possession and trafficking of live wildlife and appeared again on Tuesday at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Court.

“We did not come here to break any laws. By accident and stupidity we did,” said David Lornoy, one of the Belgian smugglers, as he asked the court to show leniency.

The court adjourned the case until April 23, when it will consider pre-sentencing reports from the KWS, National Museums of Kenya and the probation officer. The smugglers are in custody.

One source in the ant trade, who asked not to be named because it is a small world and they did not wish to speak for others, said suppliers needed a license from the KWS and a health certificate in order to export Messor Cephalotes.

The source said the species, native to Kenya, was much in demand and hard to obtain.

The KWS trumpeted the case as a landmark in the fight against biopiracy because it involved the attempted export of Kenya’s genetic resources without prior informed consent or benefit-sharing, in direct violation of the law.

“This unprecedented case signals a shift in trafficking trends - from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species,” it said in a statement.

The specialist British retailer AntsRUs described the species as “truly amazing to visually observe.”

“Messor Cephalotes are many people’s dream species. Queens are around 20-24mm long and have a beautiful red and brown/black coloration,” it said.

AntsRUs lists the price of a live queen from the species as 99.99 pounds (US$132.44), although they are currently out of stock.

(Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Giles Elgood)