Why are smugglers swarming East Africa for ants to send to China and Europe?

Kenya’s Wildlife Service detected five cases of smugglers trying to take live queen ants out of the country on flights last year.

Photo: AP For most people, ants are unwelcome guests at a picnic, but international demand for the insects is driving a new black market in East Africa, where it could threaten ant populations and the broader environment.

In early March, 27-year-old Chinese national Zhang Kequn was detained at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, with more than 2,200 live queen ants packed in his luggage.

Around the same time, Thai authorities seized a shipment of ants sent from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.

The contraband insects were from the Messor cephalotes species, the world’s biggest variety of harvester ants, which can grow up to 25mm (1 inch) in length.

Harvester ants collect seeds and store them in their nests’ granaries.

Their ability to build complex colonies has made them particularly popular among exotic pet collectors, especially in Asia and Europe, according to Willis Okumu, a Nairobi-based social anthropologist and a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.

However, hobbyists are just one group interested in the ants, according to Kavaka Mukonyi, the head of bioprospecting at Kenya’s Wildlife Research and Training Institute.

The ants are also used in traditional medicine as a cure for rheumatism, making them of interest to researchers studying the potential medical applications of the “unique microorganisms” they host.

In the March trafficking case, Zhang was charged with attempting to smuggle thousands of the queen ants to China, as well as conspiracy to commit a felony.

The ants included 1,948 harvester ants packed into specialised test tubes, with a further 300 ants concealed within rolls of tissue paper.

He was charged alongside Charles Mwangi, a Kenyan national suspected to have been the supplier of the ants.

The authorities linked him to the shipment intercepted in Bangkok.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Zhang Kequn, a Chinese national, and Charles Mwangi, a Kenyan citizen, appear in court on March 17 accused of trying to smuggle live queen harvester ants out of the country.

Photo: AP A court in Nairobi heard that queen ants – which are prized by buyers for their ability to establish colonies – could fetch around US$100 each on the international market.

They were also used as aphrodisiacs.

In another case in April last year, a Vietnamese national and three others wer

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