Hey everyone long time no see haha. It feels only a while ago I was spam posting on Formiculture every minute and flipping over every rock outside in hopes of finding a colony or a founding queen. For people who may not know me I was/am Alabama Anter and I honestly just wanted to come on here and share my experiences I have had keeping ants (on and off) since around 2015/2016, and more specifically what I was unfortunately infamous for; selling and trading ants illegally across state/international borders. Sharing my experiences, trials, and tribulations, I hope, will help any younger readers now and in the future during the exciting hobby of ant keeping, and hopefully will be an entertaining read for the many people I crossed paths with when I was younger. 
I was always into flora and fauna as a kid growing up, but I originally got into ant keeping through the Boy Scouts of America funnily enough. My parents were big into the whole Boy Scouts and I was a pretty outdoorsy kid growing up, so I joined in the 5th grade. During one of the summer camps I attended, I attempted to get an insect merit badge, needed to progress to the next rank. One of the requirements needed to complete the course for the merit badge was to either start an ant farm or a beehive. It was a no-brainer for me. As I did research on how to start an ant farm, the obvious gel farms popped up, but I knew from previous experiences, gel farms did not keep ants alive. As I surfed the web I quickly stumbled upon a certain YouTube channel; AntsCanada. That was my first window into the world of ant keeping. As I began to catch my first queen ants and start my first colonies, I quickly found Formiculture, the AntsCanada forums, and my mom's Facebook account to be the best way to discuss about my interest for the hobby.
Fast forward a few months, and I had began keeping several decent sized colonies and more and more queens were being caught daily. I had also made my own Facebook account to document my journey of keeping said ants. Constant posting on Facebook ant groups eventually lead to me being reached out to by several people and companies who wanted to purchase ants from me. At the time, I was located in Tuscaloosa, AL (Roll Tide), and Alabama notoriously is famous for having an insane biodiversity of invertebrates; ants included. This resulted in many people wanting to purchase certain species that I had access to; Solenopsis invicta, Odontomachus sp, Pogonomyrmex badius, and Cephalotes sp. to name just a few. Being a kid freshly entering middle school, the hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars being offered to me was too good to resist. I was mind-blown; I could make good money doing something I absolutely love and enjoy?! Sign me up.
I began to sell ants locally at first, via the GAN project, mainly due to me being apprehensive about shipping ants in the mail, but that was soon overcome when my first few shipments went perfectly well without any hassle. At this point in my budding 'career' I had no idea about the laws surrounding shipping ants across state lines, much less international lines. However, as my customer base grew and my reputation as well, I quickly found out that it was in fact illegal to do so. This however, was easily overlooked by my younger self. I felt that what I was doing was non-consequential and like I mentioned before, profiting off of a hobby was like a dream come true. I began to expand my little 'operation' and after around 6 months of me originally selling ants, I was receiving and sending ants through the mail literally every day. At one point, I had a 'supplier' in every continent besides Antarctica. With me being so public and open about his whole 'business', I started receiving backlash and rightfully so. I had many people in this forum and one Facebook call me out, try and talk to me, and argue with me. As a middle schooler however, this was nothing but excitement for me. Even when I would get 'hate' or even when insults would be hurled my way, it was enjoyable to me. It was enjoyable because it was about ants. I truly enjoyed the hobby and learning about ants. I was just headed in the wrong direction.
Eventually however, everything caught up with me. I had gotten constant warnings and threats from people online about reporting me to authorities, even screenshots of emails they had sent to USDA or APHIS, but what got me caught was hilariously a YouTube video I had made about a colony of Myrmecia sp I had received. On the way back from soccer practice in the car, my dad got a call from an unknown number and he picked up. It was from a USDA agent and she was asking if he was me thinking I was some grown adult. This eventually lead to me talking to her on the phone and immediately confessing to everything 
. Within 3 days, the agent and a couple of her helpers came to my house and picked up every test tube, every terrarium, every formicarium I had and loaded it up onto trucks. My colonies that I had taken care of for years were seized and sent to Silver Spring, MD to be incinerated 
. Thankfully, the USDA agent was very understanding and was able to see my passion and love for ants and ant keeping. She gave me a lot of leeway and I was not charged or hit with anything. In fact, she encouraged me not to give up on ants and gave me her contact info so I could contact her anytime I had a question. To this day I am very thankful to her and her team for the encouragement I received.
After the dust settled, I could not bring myself to start from 0 again, and I slowly stepped away from ants and the hobby in general. Life also came at me fast, as I began to grow up (I graduated middle school 
) and was enamored with other things. I would occasionally stalk the forum throughout the years, but never really got fully back into keeping ants. The eye for spotting queens can't be lost I've found out though lmao. After practice or even just during errands, I would catch myself looking down at the ground and my eyes instinctively follow the newly landed alates.
I was compelled to write this wall of text mainly because I witnessed a nuptial flight this past afternoon, and all the memories came flooding back in. Thankfully, I was able to remember my Formiculture password haha. I am now entering my sophomore year of college and to say ants and this hobby shaped me to be who I am today would be an understatement. Even the whole illegal business aspect of things helped me realize what I wanted to do with my life and what I was good at. If you reached all the way to the end, thanks for reading and happy anting!
Edited by Alabama Anter, July 28 2024 - 3:27 AM.
