The ants are flying in Kenya at the moment. During this rainy season, swarms can be seen leaving the thousands of anthills in and around Gilgil, a quiet agricultural town in Kenya's Rift Valley that has emerged as the centre of a booming illegal trade.
The mating ritual sees winged males leave the nest to impregnate queens, who also take flight at this time. This makes it the perfect time to chase down queen ants to sell on to smugglers who are at the heart of a growing global black market, that taps into the pet craze for keeping ants in transparent enclosures designed to observe the insects as they busily build a colony.
It is the giant African harvester ant queens, which are large and coloured red, that are most prized by international ant collectors – one can fetch up to £170 ($220) on the black market, which tends to operate online.
A single fertilised queen is able to create a whole colony and can live for decades – and can be easily posted as scanners do not tend to detect organic material.
At first, I did not even know it was illegal, a man, who asked not to be named, told the BBC about how he had once acted as a broker, linking foreign buyers with local collection networks.
These ants, known scientifically as Messor cephalotes, are native to East Africa and known for their distinctive seed-gathering behaviour making them popular with collectors.
The scale of the illicit trade became apparent last year when 5,000 giant harvester ant queens were found alive at a guest house in Naivasha, packed for transport to Europe and Asia.
As the illegal ant trade grows in Kenya, so do concerns regarding environmental impacts and the need for proper regulations. Experts argue that sustainable practices could not only help protect species but also provide economic opportunities for local communities.
The mating ritual sees winged males leave the nest to impregnate queens, who also take flight at this time. This makes it the perfect time to chase down queen ants to sell on to smugglers who are at the heart of a growing global black market, that taps into the pet craze for keeping ants in transparent enclosures designed to observe the insects as they busily build a colony.
It is the giant African harvester ant queens, which are large and coloured red, that are most prized by international ant collectors – one can fetch up to £170 ($220) on the black market, which tends to operate online.
A single fertilised queen is able to create a whole colony and can live for decades – and can be easily posted as scanners do not tend to detect organic material.
At first, I did not even know it was illegal, a man, who asked not to be named, told the BBC about how he had once acted as a broker, linking foreign buyers with local collection networks.
These ants, known scientifically as Messor cephalotes, are native to East Africa and known for their distinctive seed-gathering behaviour making them popular with collectors.
The scale of the illicit trade became apparent last year when 5,000 giant harvester ant queens were found alive at a guest house in Naivasha, packed for transport to Europe and Asia.
As the illegal ant trade grows in Kenya, so do concerns regarding environmental impacts and the need for proper regulations. Experts argue that sustainable practices could not only help protect species but also provide economic opportunities for local communities.
