Ants are usually something that you want to keep out of your house, but two teenagers from Belgium had apparently kept 5,000 ants at a guest house in Kenya.
According to the Associated Press, the pair was arrested on animal trafficking charges after they were found with the ants, which were packed into over 2,200 test tubes.
While ants might not seem like a particularly attractive animal to smuggle out of a country, the Kenya Wildlife Service says there’s been “a shift in trafficking trends — from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species.”
The ants included the red messor cephalotes, which is native to East Africa.
The teens, who’ve been charged with wildlife piracy, argued that their ant collection was purely for fun, and they did not intend on doing anything illegal.