Discussion
One ant for $220: The new frontier of wildlife trafficking
technothrasher: Not that I'd ever be in the market for illegal wildlife, 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.
joserohan: Wow this is wild!
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
Neywiny: You're about to be the next Walter White. "I could never. Oh wait they sell for how much? And I just put them in what, dirt or something? Hmmmm...."
jubilanti: One ant QUEEN that can start a colony for $220 --- a big difference than one worker ant. But I bet if you put "queen" this headline would get way fewer clicks.
HiPhish: OK, but why? They are ants, they don't do anything useful as pets, you cannot play with them and you cannot observe them build their giant mounds in a glorified aquarium.
Loughla: What a weird perspective. Why do people collect anything?
pixl97: What an odd question, people have had ant colonies in terrariums as pets for decades if not centuries. And yes, you can observe them in terrarium conditions. This particular breed of ant is a little less violent than a lot of the species we're used to.
HiPhish: We are talking about 220$ for a single ant. If you want to keep an ant colony why not just buy one of the cheaper ones instead?
adrian_b: If you have enough imagination, you can "play" with them.Professional and amateur scientists have made countless behavioral experiments with ants, since the time of Jean-Henri Fabre, in the 19th century, to see how they solve various problems.
adrian_b: The species described in TFA are very big ants, so they are easy to observe. Moreover, unlike most ants, they eat mostly seeds, so I assume that they are easier to feed in captivity.
schiem: It's illegal to ship queen ants across state lines (let alone from out of the country) without a USDA permit, so you'll be hard pressed to find many sites willing to admit to it.That said, Bugs In Cyberspace is well respected within the invert space - I'd be shocked if they were engaged in any kind of illegal insect trafficking. Roach Crossing is another solid place to buy from as well.
m463: I read an article about a problem with poachers grabbing these weird plants in africa. Can't find the article but it was about lithops poachers.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithops#Conservation_statusBut they were so cute, looking like weird butt-cheeks:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lithops_salicola.jpgSo I picked some up at a local flower shop when I saw them.they seemed to be selling them legally.I think we wouldn't do anything with exotic flora and fauna unless smuggling had happened at some time in the past, then it got grandfathered in.on the other hand, dandilions, eucalyptus, mongooses (mongees?)
weitendorf: > they seemed to be selling them legallyI think realistically businesses in other parts of the world have no incentive to fully enforce ethical provenance across the entire supply chain for these kinds of products, and in most cases, fully lack the capability either. You'd have to run some kind of ATF-kinda thing in a third world country where official rule of law is already dicey or absent.
wongarsu: Also tomatoes and potatoes in Europe, guinea pigs outside South America, pigs in the Americas, etc.We love moving plants and animals around if they're useful or pretty. Conservation efforts that try to stop this for certain species are a relatively recent thing
HWR_14: It probably wouldn't be expensive to legally source them either. Kenya has permits you can apply for to collect them.Of course, the destination countries may have an issue with importing them.
