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Posted on 03/12/2026 2:24:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A Chinese national has been arrested in Kenya's main airport accused of attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 queen garden ants out of the country.
Zhang Kequn was intercepted during a security check at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in the capital Nairobi after authorities discovered a large consignment of live ants in his luggage bound for China.
He has yet to respond to the accusation but investigators said in court that he was linked to an ant-trafficking network that was broken up in Kenya last year.
The ants are protected by international bio-diversity treaties and their trade is highly regulated.
Last year, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) warned of a growing demand for garden ants – scientifically known as Messor cephalotes - in Europe and Asia, where collectors keep them as pets.
A state prosecutor told the court on Wednesday that Zhang had packed some ants in test tubes, while others were concealed in tissue paper rolls hidden in his luggage.
"Within his personal luggage there was found 1,948 garden ants packed in specialised test tubes," prosecutor Allen Mulama told the court.
"A further 300 live ants were recovered concealed in three rolls of tissue paper within the luggage," he added.
The prosecutor asked the court to allow the suspect's electronic devices - phone and laptop - to be forensically examined.
Duncan Juma, a senior KWS official, told the BBC that more arrests were expected as investigators widen their probe into other Kenyan towns where ant harvesting was suspected to be ongoing.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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Why?
Kenyans missing a market opportunity to propagate and sell pet ants.
And we have several million Indian citizens here in the USA running our computer systems. And ants is a problem?
Was that wrong?
I looked it up. There isn’t much of an explanation here. How many pet owners are interested in complex social behavior. And, not a word about their bite. I’m in Florida and the native green lizard has almost gone extinct because imported lizards hatch earlier and eat their smaller cousins. I miss seeing the green lizards of my youth.
“Exotic pet trade
People steal queen ants from Kenya primarily for the exotic pet trade, as they are highly sought after by collectors who maintain colonies in specialized enclosures known as formicariums. These ants, particularly the giant African harvester ants (Messor cephalotes), are valued for their social behaviors and ecological importance, as they play a crucial role in soil health and biodiversity. The smuggling of these insects is driven by the desire to study their complex social structures and behaviors, which can fetch significant profits in the black market.
The Independent
+4”
WTF? Do they eat them in China as some kind of delicacy or something? They eat rats, why not ants?
He should have smuggled them in his pants. Nobody ever looks there, and he can truthfully say when asked by customs why he is squirming in his chair...
"I have ants in my pants!"
Ants mostly.
Biological warfare? Good eating?
“Chinese national arrested over attempt to smuggle 2,000 queen ants from Kenya”. He was doing business.
I just had a conversation today with a guy in British Columbia who was expecting a delivery of BEES from Australia. He said he will be getting a two pound box of bees with one Queen in the middle. Cost $265. Not sure if that was US or Canadian dollars.
He said most of the bees come from Australia or New Zealand. This time of year because they are going into the winter season when we are going into spring.
He has about 25 hives distributed around the Frasier River valley SE of Vancouver. He bottles honey.
Keep an eye on 'em. They can be very devious buggers.
It’s clearly a terrorist plot to disrupt our summer picnic season.
You can’t take the chance of ants in your pants because the ants in the pants dance lacks elegance.
If the final destination was China, the ants were probably either as food for pets such as spiders, snakes and beetles, or intended to be processed for human use in some manner as an ‘aid to the libido’.
The the potential of bio-dangers from Formic acid?
More likely just considered to be some kind of "medicine".
The ants are either for some Chinese "delicacy" or as an invasive species bio-weapon candidate against the United States that the Chinese want to test.
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