For decades, wildlife trafficking in East Africa was synonymous with elephant tusks and rhino horns. But today, a new and unlikely commodity is drawing smugglers to the region. With the growing demand for exotic insects in Asia by hobbyists and online traders, traffickers are now increasingly targeting rare African ant species, creating what Kenyan authorities describe as an emerging frontier in wildlife crime.

The giant African harvester ant species (Messor cephalotes), native to East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania) and which is prized in the exotic pet trade, is at the centre of the emerging illegal trade.

Mukonyi Watai, a senior scientist at Kenya’s Wildlife Research and Training Institute, tells NWS that trafficking of exotic insects is an alarming trend in Kenya’s wildlife trade. “These insects might seem tiny and useless to many people, but this is a serious form of biopiracy because such insects play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems,” Watai says.

“Removing Messor cephalotes ants from the wild will definitely have ecological consequences because they are critical for the East African ecosystem,” he adds. Watai explains that giant harvester ants help transport and redistribute seeds, support plant regeneration and biodiversity, aerate the soil, improve nutrient cycling, and enhance water infiltration in fragile dryland habitats.

Erustus Kanga, Director General of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), believes that the illegal trafficking of lesser-known yet ecologically critical species, such as ants, is a real concern for Kenya. “There is rising global demand for these exotic insects, more particularly in Asian countries and Kenya, being a rich source, becomes a target for traffickers,” Kanga tells NWS.

According to Kanga, smuggling live ants breaches multiple layers of law: it contravenes Section 99 of Kenya's Wildlife Conservation and Management Act (2013), which requires permits for collecting wildlife specimens and bars unauthorised export, as well as the Wildlife Research and Training Institute Act, which obliges researchers collecting insects for scientific purposes to secure research, collection, and export permits along with ethical and institutional approvals.

It also violates the Nagoya Protocol, which sets out a legal framework for accessing genetic resources and sharing the benefits fairly with the country of origin, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which affirms states’ sovereign rights over their biodiversity and regulates access to biological resources for scientific and commercial use. “The problem arises when collectors bypass these mechanisms and remove biological resources without consent or benefit-sharing arrangements,” Kanga says.

“Trafficking of insects is becoming a worrying trend because Kenyans helping traffickers harvest these ants do not know the critical role they play in maintaining ecological balance,” Kanga says.

Air transport, the most-preferred method

Crucially, he says that the Belgian nationals arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in April 2025 while trafficking 5,000 ants were not traditional wildlife traffickers but collectors and hobbyists interested in rare ant species unavailable in their countries.

“The fact that the suspects attempted to export such a huge number of giant African harvester ants suggests that it was not for scientific research but for the lucrative collector market,” he says.

The illegal trade has frequently depended on air transport to sustain its operations. According to Kanga, the evidence points to air travel as the smugglers’ preferred method, largely due to its speed. The ants are placed in specially modified test tubes, syringes, plastic containers or laboratory vials containing cotton wool and moisture to keep them alive. The containers are hidden inside luggage, electronic equipment or food containers. The ants are flown to destination markets in Asia and Europe.

Unlike elephant tusks or rhino horns, live ants can be concealed in test tubes and survive lengthy flights with minimal care. Their small size makes air travel through international airports the preferred route for traffickers.

Kenya tightens the noose on traffickers

On April 15, 2026, a Kenyan court sentenced Zhang Kequn, a Chinese national, to a 12-month jail term and a $7,746 fine for attempting to smuggle live ants out of the country. While delivering the judgment, the magistrate in the case said the stiff sentence was intended to act as a deterrent, given a spate of ant trafficking from Kenya.

Kequn was arrested in March 2026 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with more than 2,200 live garden ants in his luggage. In April 2025, four men were arrested at the JKIA for attempting to smuggle 5,440 giant African harvester ants from Kenya to Asia and Europe. 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 serve 12 months in jail. They paid the fine, and the foreign nationals left the country.

In 2023, three Kenyans were charged with attempting to illegally export harvester ants worth $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.

Local facilitators

Esther Kioko, an entomologist and biodiversity researcher, says that the conservative estimate of single ants from Kenya is in the tens of thousands annually, based on seizures and undetected flows. “In one year alone, we have had at least 5 major reported cases of insect trafficking in Kenya, and the numbers that are never caught are likely much higher,” she tells NWS.

Kioko warns that introducing ants into a new environment outside their native range risks turning them into an invasive species with dire environmental consequences.

“The smuggling of Messor cephalotes, native to East Africa, to southeast China could disrupt agriculture and food production in that region. These ants are voracious seed harvesters and if they establish invasive populations, they could consume and disperse large quantities of crop seeds, compete with native insect species, alter soil ecosystems, and potentially affect the regeneration and productivity of both agricultural and natural plant communities,” Kioko says.

A well-established network

Smugglers enter Kenya on tourist visas before connecting with local smuggling networks, which help trace the ants' source, harvest them, and package them, Kanga says. “Before these smugglers arrive, they would have established a local network to help them execute their trade."

Apart from working with local networks, smugglers also seek help from rogue wildlife, immigration and security personnel who help in facilitating their illegal activities.

“There are a few bad elements within the government agencies who are working in cahoots with smugglers in exchange for bribes, but we are tightening our surveillance systems through a multisectoral approach to close any gaps being exploited by the gangs,’’ he says.

James Mwangi, a reformed trafficking broker, tells NWS that he was lured into the trade because of the good money the traffickers were paying. “A friend working in one of the conservancies told me that some tourists were looking for ants to cook. He asked me to look for them in the savannah and package them in special test tubes he gave me,” says Mwangi.

Mwangi would harvest the giant ants from mounds in open fields very early in the morning, before delivering them to the foreigners who waited in the nearby town. “The harvesting process is quite easy. Just disturb the mound by gently knocking on it, and the ants would come out one by one,” he says.

He, however, says that he never knew the ants were being smuggled out of the country. “All I knew was that the ants were being sold for food.”

Prized in Asia

According to Enhancing Africa’s response to Transnational Organised Crimes (ENACT), the demand for exotic insects is growing in Asia, particularly in China, Vietnam and India, where a rapidly expanding niche community of insect hobbyists exists, making it a top destination for smuggled ants from East Africa.

Willis Okumu, Senior Researcher at ENACT, notes that a vibrant online trade of exotic species is a major facilitator of the illegal trafficking of ants. ENACT estimates that a single Queen ant can fetch US$233 in Europe and Asia, with entire colonies sold at significantly higher prices among insect collectors there. Okumu says the exotic insects’ market is forecast to be worth around $17.9 billion by 2033.

The researcher notes that online trade in ants in Asia and Europe contributes to increased smuggling of insects from Africa. “It has become easier for smugglers to find buyers online,’’ says Okumu.

In 2023, the Biological Conservation published a paper revealing that there were 58,937 online ant-colony sales in China, involving 209 different ant species, including those from Africa. Ants HQ, an online ant seller in the United Kingdom, has listed several species on its website, including the African weaver, trap-jaw, red harvester and giant African stink ants, with prices per ant ranging from $23 to $176.

Valtino Omolo, Research Officer at ENACT, notes that India has both scientific and hobbyist interests in ants, including research institutions and informal trading circles, which create a potential demand base or a transit market for foreign species such as Kenyan ants.

“India has a rapidly expanding illegal exotic pet market, and it is not just a consumer but a logistics hub because it has already established trafficking networks that enable the movement of trafficked species through airports and informal channels within Asia, making it a transit point, a redistribution hub or a parallel market for trafficked ants,” says Omolo.

India is home to unique ants like the Harpegnathos saltator, known for unusual behaviour and prized by researchers and hobbyists. Omolo explained that apart from being used in formicariums (ant farms), trafficked ants from Africa are used in research on swarm intelligence, microorganisms, and antibiotics. “Some ants are sold for traditional purposes, such as Rheumatism treatments and experimental medicinal compounds,” she said.

Chrysantus Tanga, Head of the Insects for Food, Feed and Other Uses (INSEFF) Programme at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), explains that insect hobbyists are classified into two categories: myrmecologists and ant keepers.

“Myrmecologists are hobbyists who collect insects primarily for scientific and research purposes, while ant keepers are mainly insect enthusiasts who collect, breed, and observe ants and other insects as a hobby,” says Tanga. He explained that Myrmecologists “keep ants in specially designed artificial nests called formicariums or ant farms for research purposes”.

Asia, particularly China and, increasingly, India and Vietnam, has experienced an explosion in exotic pet ownership and insect-keeping communities, attributing the rapid growth to a vibrant online trade in rare species fueled by social media trends. “Asian online marketplaces and social media platforms make it easier for collectors and traders to buy and sell colonies, exchange breeding information, and arrange international shipments,” he says.

“Asia has a booming exotic-pet culture, sophisticated e-commerce networks, growing scientific demand, established trafficking routes, and an expanding middle class that has increased spending on niche hobbies and exotic pets,” the scientist says. Asia’s large consumer base has driven rare African ants to fetch exceptionally high prices, turning tiny insects into highly lucrative wildlife commodities.

A new frontier in wildlife crime

The rise in ant trafficking reflects how wildlife crime networks are constantly adapting to evade detection and exploit new markets. Kanga says, “Smugglers are increasingly targeting lesser-known species that attract lower scrutiny from enforcement agencies but attract high prices in international markets.”

As Kenya intensifies efforts to stop the trade, the real challenge will be convincing the world that protecting biodiversity means safeguarding not only its most charismatic animals, but also the small, often overlooked creatures that keep ecosystems functioning.

"The world notices when an elephant or a Rhino disappears. But ecosystems can collapse just as surely when we lose the insects that pollinate plants, disperse seeds and enrich our soils. The ants being smuggled today may be small, but the consequences of losing them are enormous,” Kanga says.