Legal or not, the trade in African ants bound for Europe is booming. What do hobbyists find appealing about these insects, and what risks does the trade pose to ecosystems, including power outages?
https://p.dw.com/p/5I3wHThe great African harvest ant helps sustain East Africa's ecosystem by dispersing grass seeds Image: Dino MartinsAdvertisementThey are unusual pieces of evidence that regularly appear in Kenyan courtrooms: thousands of ants packed into tiny containers.
Since 2025, such finds have been presented in court several times. Staff from the Kenya Wildlife Service discovered them during baggage inspections. In multiple cases, they identified thousands of specimens of the sought-after Messor Cephalotes species also known as the Giant African Harvester Ant. A single queen can fetch more than €200 ($230) on the market.
The export of wild animals is generally prohibited in Kenya. Due to high levels of poaching — particularly involving elephants and rhinoceroses — many African countries have introduced tough laws against wildlife trafficking.
Kenya has also tightened its legislation. Under these rules, a Chinese national who attempted to export ants was sentenced last April to one year in prison for biopiracy. Given the growing scale of smuggling and its ecological consequences, the judge said the sentence should serve as a deterrent.
It was already the second major ant-smuggling case in 12 months. The previous year, the wildlife service stopped four men who referred to themselves as the "Ant Gang." Among them were two 19-year-old Belgians who were trying to smuggle 5,500 queens to Europe. They were fined around €5,000 each.
Whenever such cases arise, authorities often call entomologist Dino Martins to the airport. "I was shocked," he said. "Not only by the sheer number of ants, but also because they were queen ants."
The seized insects were young queens that had been dug up from nests in the ground, according to Martins, who has led several research institutes in Kenya and is regarded as one of Africa's leading ant experts, These queens have wings that allow them to fly away and establish new colonies.
"When you collect queens at this critical moment, you interrupt a key stage in the creation of new colonies," he said, adding that Kenya's ecosystems are also affected because ants transport grass seeds, helping to regenerate the savannah.
In Europe, keeping ants as pets has become increasingly popular, particularly among young people. Colonies are housed in glass terrariums where a queen produces offspring and establishes an entirely new population.
One person who keeps ants as a hobby is Michael Meier, who asked not to be identified by his real name. While at university, he wanted a pet that required little attention.
"With ants, it doesn't really matter whether I feed them today or tomorrow," he said.
At one point, Meier kept almost 30 colonies in a room specially set up for them. Today, he has four. He admits that exotic species are considered especially attractive to ant enthusiasts because they do not hibernate.
"That way, you can enjoy the animals all year round," he said.
On the websites of numerous online shops, ants can be ordered through the mail with just a few clicks. "African ants" is a category commonly used to attract customers. Among the species on sale is the very one repeatedly discovered at Kenyan airports.
Anyone who asks dealers how the ants reach Europe receives few answers. Even sellers who advertise "import permits" have declined to answer media inquiries. The trade operates in a legal gray area.
Under the international wildlife trade agreement monitored by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), ants are not considered a threatened species. Their trade is therefore neither prohibited nor regulated globally.
Kenya, meanwhile, bans the export of all wildlife. But unlike ivory, ants can easily be smuggled out of the country in hand luggage or through the mail.
The online trade in wildlife has expanded rapidly beyond the ant business, says Russell Gray. Working with an international team, he investigated the issue for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
"The key finding is that this is no longer a marginal problem hidden away on obscure websites," Gray said. "Today, we see it happening on popular platforms such as Facebook."
Last year, Gray's team examined more than 60 online platforms. They found 266,000 advertisements that included prices. The combined value of wildlife listings amounted to around $66 million. Insects were not even included.
"If we looked at the entire online wildlife trade," Gray concludes, "we would probably be talking about a market worth billions."
Chris Shepherd, a biologist at the US-based Center for Biological Diversity, which advocates globally for biodiversity conservation, is deeply concerned.
The Kenyan cases demonstrate that compared with other forms of crime, such as drug trafficking, profits are high while "the risks are significantly lower," he said. Once rare species begin commanding high prices, organized criminal networks become interested in the trade.
Shepherd therefore calls for stricter regulation. In open letters, he has urged CITES to address the ant trade. He is particularly concerned about the consequences for ecosystems.
Those consequences are already making headlines in Germany.
Entire colonies of North African large gland ants regularly cause power and internet outages in southern Germany by nesting inside electrical distribution boxes.
To address the issue, local government representatives from Austria, Switzerland and southern Germany met at an ant conference in the summer of 2025 to exchange experiences.
Climate change, bringing higher temperatures and less frost, has made conditions in Central Europe increasingly suitable for the species.
Shepherd notes that most ants probably arrive in Europe through plant imports rather than the online pet trade. Even so, he argues that the hobby market poses risks as well. No one can guarantee that colonies will never be released into the wild.
Ant keepers such as Meier are familiar with these debates, which frequently take place in online forums. Meier advises owners who lose interest to either pass colonies on to other enthusiasts or euthanize them properly rather than releasing them.
For Shepherd, that is not enough. As long as the international ant trade remains largely unregulated, he says, it will continue to pose a risk.
Translated from German by Silja Fröhlich
Insects: The new food?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
