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One ant for $220: The new frontier of wildlife trafficking

One ant for $220: The new frontier of wildlife trafficking

gmays

Comments (26)

  • ashenke
    I got into antkeeping after reading a comment on this very site about what a cool hobby this was (and having been fascinated by ants since my childhood).I fell into the rabbit hole of types of formicariums, species identification. I settled on my "favourite" specy that I wanted to have that was endemic to my region. I bought a queen + 3 workers from a reputed seller, but they waited a week before sending the test tube and when they sent it it the queen was dead on arrival :(So I decided to just look for signs of nuptials flights in my city and look for a queen myself, it was a really fun summer! Always looking at the pavement when walking outside, keeping test tubes in my bag, taking long walks in the morning after it rained because it was the ideal conditions for some of the species I wanted.In the end, one afternoon I found that dozens and dozens of queens had taken their nuptials flights all over the city, it was awesome to notice this for the first time.So I got a queen of one of the most numerous and unremarkable species in the region, it's been two years and it's been really fun. A really not that expensive hobby! If even if you're not into diy (like I am) you need only a test tube to get started, and then later when the first workers arrive a foraging area that can just be a plastic container.Really recommend it, and I'm not interested at all in buying exotic species. Sure, leafcutter ants look awesome, but I wouldn't keep a snake in my house either!
  • technothrasher
    Not that I'd ever be in the market for illegal wildlife, I find the whole trade abhorrent, but $220 for a pregnant queen of an exotic ant species that would spawn an entire colony and live for years doesn't seem at all expensive.
  • jareklupinski
    "The foreigners never came to the fields themselves - they would wait in town, in a guest house or a car, and we would bring the ants to them packed in small tubes or syringes they supplied us with."i never got the appeal of having someone else do the only interesting part of anything for you
  • grimgrin
    I've had a bugshop bookmark for a while. Never to buy, merely curious. I like bugshttps://bugsincyberspace.com/about/glad to say search shows no "queen" results, though idk if that means anything
  • analog31
  • HiPhish
    OK, but why? They are ants, they don't do anything useful as pets, you cannot play with them and you cannot observe them build their giant mounds in a glorified aquarium.
  • anon
    undefined
  • cute_boi
    "pet craze for keeping ants in transparent enclosures designed to observe the insects as they busily build a colony."I don’t understand why people would build an entire industry around insect trafficking just to watch ants for a few days before getting bored of them.
  • black_13
    [dead]
  • joserohan
    Wow this is wild!