On 23 April 2025, four men were arrested and arraigned before the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Magistrate’s Court for attempting to smuggle 5 440 giant African harvester ants from Kenya to Asia and Europe.
While valued locally at KSh1.2 million (US$9,300), each of the queen ants seized in Nairobi is reported to be worth US$233 once smuggled to Europe or Asia, totalling US$1,267,520. Even though many of the ants die en route, the value for smugglers remains substantial.
Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx (Belgian citizens), Duh Hung Nguyen (Vietnamese) and Dennis Ng’ang’a (Kenyan) were convicted and ordered to pay a fine of US$7 700 each or go to jail for 12 months. They paid the fine and the foreign nationals left the country.
This is not the first time that ant smugglers have been charged in Kenya. In 2023, three Kenyans were similarly charged with attempting to illegally export harvester ants worth KSh300 000 (US$2 321) to France. Both cases involved Messor cephalotes, a species native to East Africa and sought after in the exotic pet trade for its complex colony-building skills and unique social dynamics.
According to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), these incidents mark a disturbing shift and diversification in wildlife trafficking patterns that now include lesser-known species that play a critical role in maintaining ecological balance.
According to a customs official based at JKIA in Nairobi, ‘termites, frogs and even snake eggs have been found in the bags of suspects leaving the country, which could point to an emerging illicit market trading in smaller species that many regulatory agencies in Africa have not been paying attention to.’
Ant keeping and collecting is a niche and growing hobby that has emerged over the past decade in Europe, China and Vietnam. This has led to the growth of ant aficionados across Asia and Europe, who routinely organise ant-keeping shows where the characteristics and housing of specific species are admired. Ant enthusiasts argue that watching ants in their colonies is therapeutic and encourage others to get into what they describe as a ‘fascinating hobby.’
Different websites sell ant species, including several African species, online. In 2023, a paper in Biological Conservation noted that there were 58 937 online ant colony sales in China, involving 209 different ant species. Ants HQ, a United Kingdom-based online ant seller, displays several species on its website. These include the African weaver, trap-jaw, red harvester and giant African stink ants – with prices per ant ranging from £17 to £129 (US$23 to $176).
The trial of the four suspects in Kenya revealed the modus operandi and criminal actors involved in this illegal wildlife trade. The two Belgians entered Kenya on tourist visas and stayed in Naivasha, a tourist destination renowned for its game reserves.
The Vietnamese national was described as a ‘courier’ or ‘mule’, while the Kenyan was a broker who reportedly connected the Belgians and Vietnamese to local networks that illegally sell ants. The ants were packed by the Belgians in more than 2 000 test tubes filled with cotton wool to sustain their survival for months.
In an interview with TheGuardian, entomologist Dino Martins highlights that harvester ants are the grass seed dispersers of the African savannahs. They gather grass seeds as food for their colonies, and as they move up and about the savannahs they drop these seeds, leading to their germination.
Queen ants are vital for the survival of their colonies, reproducing workers, soldiers and future queen ants. Trafficking queen ants out of their native habitats therefore jeopardises ant colonies, and harms biodiversity more broadly.
At the same time, scientists have noted the increased trade in ants globally, warning in the Biological Conservation paper that if ants are introduced outside their native ranges, they risk becoming an invasive species with dire environmental consequences. They said the increased smuggling of Messor cephalotes, native to East Africa, to southeast China could disrupt agriculture and food production in that region.
Currently, this particular ant species is neither listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, nor assessed for inclusion on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. Consequently, states are not obliged to determine and track the extent of their trade and population trends.
This regulatory gap does not in itself present an opportunity for smuggling. But the absence of species-specific trade controls and population data make it hard for law enforcement agencies to detect, prevent and prosecute the illegal trade and transactions tied to it.
However, smuggling live ants does contravene Section 99 of Kenya’s Wildlife Conservation and Management Act (2013) and constitutes biopiracy. The act says this entails biological resources’ exploitation without the knowledge and non-coercive prior consent of the resources’ owners, and without providing fair compensation and benefit sharing.
This means the illegal collection and export of such specimens without formal authorisation from relevant authorities, such as the KWS, directly contravenes national biodiversity laws and international access and benefit-sharing principles.
The KWS also notes that the recently arrested suspects violated the Nagoya Protocol. This international agreement establishes a legal framework for accessing genetic resources and ensuring benefits arising from their use are shared fairly and equitably with the country of origin.
Wildlife crime expert Charles Ochieng says detecting ant and insect smuggling through airports requires improved detection equipment capable of identifying small, ventilated containers designed to sustain live insects during flight transportation. This is especially needed at main transport hubs.
Protecting ants from smuggling also requires building community awareness in known harvesting zones, especially as this threat is mostly unseen and involves creatures that most households perceive as a nuisance.
Building local capacity to detect ant harvesting early and report it to the relevant authorities will help to preserve ant colonies in their local habitats. Including smaller species in the international conventions that compel international cooperation targeting destination continents such as Europe and Asia, where ant watching is increasingly becoming a hobby, is also crucial.
Valtino Omolo, Research Officer, ENACT, ISS Nairobi, and Willis Okumu, Senior Researcher, ENACT, ISS Nairobi
Image: Monicah Mwangi/Reuters
