Authorities in Mexico’s Jalisco state seized a parcel containing 105 queen harvester ants concealed in toys on July 9. The shipment, sent from El Salto in Jalisco and destined for Laos, was falsely labeled “collectible figures,” authorities said in a press release.
The parcel delivery company reported a suspicious package to Mexico’s Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa). They found the ants. Each one stuffed in a test tube with a cotton ball, hidden inside two plastic toys; 18 of the 105 queen ants were dead, authorities said. The surviving ants were released in the Cerro Viejo Protected Natural Area in Jalisco.
An ant expert determined the harvester ants belonged to the genus Pogonomyrmex, according to the release, and are native to the deserts of the Americas, including Mexico. Further investigations related to this seizure are ongoing, authorities said.
Insects, including ants, have become targets for wildlife trafficking in recent years. Harvester ants are particularly in demand for their complex colony-building skills and are kept in specialized artificial ant habitats known as formicariums.
“This seizure is another indicator of the globally booming interest in ants,” Sandra Altherr, cofounder of the German NGO Pro Wildlife, told Mongabay in an email. In 2025, Kenyan authorities confiscated more than 5,300 endemic harvester ants and arrested four suspects — two Belgians, one Kenyan national and one Vietnamese national. In a recent online survey of ant trading websites, Altherr’s team found more than 360 different species of ants from all over the world for sale, she said.
“This seizure further exemplifies the fact that this trade is international in nature and clearly worth risking penalization for,” Chris Shepherd from the U.S.-based NGO Center for Biological Diversity told Mongabay in an interview. “Someone is making money off of it all.”
The growing ant trade robs ecosystems of soil engineers and poses the risk of introducing invasives: Most ants traded can become invasive species, a 2021 study found. Invasive ants can be ecologically disastrous and costly: On Australia’s Christmas Island, yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) from Asia wiped out native red crabs (Gecarcoidea natalis), and little fire ants (Wasmannia auropunctata) from Central and South America cost Hawaiians in the U.S. at least $170 million in damages annually, as reported in 2013.
Currently, none of the world’s ant species are regulated under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty.
“There are no measures in place to prevent either potential harm to the species involved or their possible introduction and establishment as invasive species in importing countries,” Altherr said.
In a recent letter, Shepherd and his colleague argue that ants must be added to the treaty to regulate international trade.
“Enforcement agencies around the world, especially in airports and other trade hubs, should be made aware of this rapidly growing trend and be vigilant,” Shepherd said. “People smuggling ants should be appropriately prosecuted, given the ants they are trafficking could lead to millions of dollars of damage.”
Banner image: Queen harvester ants seized in Mexico. Image courtesy of Profepa.
