These sellers do brisk business online. On mainstream platforms like Ebay, they often upcharge novice antkeepers, the same trafficker tells WIRED; more sophisticated hobbyists buy and sell on private Discord servers. “Everyone on Discord has their respect towards each other about prices,” the trafficker says. They estimate an order that might go for roughly $350 on Discord could go for like $1,000 on eBay.
Ebay’s current policy on live animal sales prohibits the selling of ants, but according to tests performed by WIRED, it’s easy to find a wide variety of species for sale on the platform, from common sights throughout the US like black carpenter ants, to more exotic fare like the slender twig ant, a stinging variety native to Mexico.(Ebay did not respond to requests for comment.)
In recent months, several sellers have witnessed black market players become more ruthlessly competitive as they race to make the most money, attempting to sabotage rivals by tipping off law enforcement and even threatening them with violence. “I’ve seen two guys threaten to shoot each other online,” says another seller, who is currently involved in a Discord server devoted to unregulated buying and selling. “Over a children’s hobby!”
Several smugglers stressed that most black market sellers have a genuine love for antkeeping and try to handle their insects responsibly. But recently, they say, newer players have started to behave in a more reckless manner amid what they perceive as a lax regulatory environment with less oversight.
In an effort to maximize profits, some dealers collect and sell large volumes of specimens. These vendors often procure their wares from the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, a hot spot for ant diversity that attracts collectors looking for species like leafcutter and honeypot ants, two types that tend to sell well because they have unique properties. “It’s going to start hurting the population,” the first seller told WIRED. “You can’t just take thousands of queens without causing issues.”
Insect experts have watched the upheaval at the USDA and other federal agencies tasked with controlling pests with alarm. “There’s been a lot of cutting of the inspectors as part of the quote-unquote ‘efficiency’ moves from the government recently,” says Chris Stelzig, executive director of the Entomological Society of America. “A reduced infrastructure to detect invasive species can be problematic.”
Even prior to the recent cuts, some experts say there were problems with how the US enforced laws on insect trafficking across state lines. Carlos Blanco, an entomologist who recently retired from his role at the USDA and who spoke to WIRED in his personal capacity, says that bureaucratic disorganization has plagued the department for years. Blanco describes the rise of illicit ant sales as “a headache we really tried to control,” but it was difficult to coordinate effectively between agencies. “Some of these illegal vendors would laugh in our faces.”
Before leaving the government during the layoffs this year, Rosario-Lebrón says he had to lobby hard for any attention to be paid to the ant smuggling issue, noting that he pushed to “make a legal route so that we could have the kids find legal queens to buy online, and we started working really hard to permit people.” Queen ants, the reproductive females that lay all the eggs, are necessary for any colony’s survival but are especially risky to transport, as letting an invasive queen loose in a new area means that it could establish a colony and displace native ants.
