Belgian teens arrested with 5k smuggled ants

cnn.com

8 pointsmooreds7 comments

But why are people trafficking ants specifically? What do people want out of them?

" The Kenya Wildlife Service said the four men were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa."

Sorry I wasn't able to extrapolate the answer from even that sentence lol

- for collectors and ant-colony-builders as "pets"

- or, for terrorist-atack on grain. This ants are graniwhores and eat grain and other insects. An eco-system not adapted to the ants might go down on them. This for sure will also be one of the reasons it is forbidden to collect them, as set out on the other side of africa may lead to uncontrollable collony-grow and endangering the wildlife and the farmer's grains.

- there is a demand for sure.

Reading between the lines, it is for people collecting ants.

"They told the magistrate they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal."

...

The ants "were packed in 2,244 test tubes that had been filled with cotton wool to enable the ants to survive for months. "

they knew what they did, they've had a plan - but, no exit-strategy.

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