Move over cats and dogs. There’s a new hot favorite pet in town: ants.

More and more people are raising pet ants around the world. They are small, low-maintenance and display complex behaviors that fascinate humans. But this fascination is leading to a bigger issue: an underground global trade of ants. Wild ants are now popping up in places where they are not supposed to. This trade could have serious environmental and financial repercussions, and is also making pet ants very expensive.

In the latest episode of Mongabay Explains, we look at why people are obsessed with pet ants and why these insects are costing a fortune.

This one ant can cost up to $220. Meet the giant African harvester Ant Queen. She’s kind of like a rock star in the pet ant community. Yup, that’s a thing.

Turns out, people love keeping ants. And buying them can be as easy as clicking a button. But this fascination is fuelling a lucrative illegal global trade. Kenya has nabbed four ant gang smugglers.

Pleaded guilty to trafficking ants. Found in possession of over 5,000 ant queens destined for the international market. As a wildlife reporter, I wanted to dig more into this murky underworld to find out why exactly are ants getting so expensive? To be fair, ants make fascinating pets.

You can watch them doing these really sophisticated behaviours in real time. They farm, build complex colonies, and fight intense battles. Plus, there are 20 quadrillion of them on the planet. Which means…

There is just pretty much every possible combination of behaviours under the sun. That’s not all. Ants are also… The most independent and autonomous pets you can get.

Don’t need grooming. They don’t need walking. Silent. Don’t require a lot of space.

Read the full article about pet ants at Mongabay.