Customs officials at a Chengdu airport were surely bugging out after they came across a suitcase containing a large ant colony previously destined to be made into medicinal wine.
The 4.4-kilogram ant nest was seized by staff at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport Customs on Sunday. Its owner, a Chinese national, had arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
He had chosen to take the "Nothing to Declare" lane when customs agents noticed an unusual cluster when his luggage passed through their X-ray.
Agents opened it to find a nest with hundreds of live ants.
Customs said the man had dug up the colony in Ethiopia and intended to infuse it into a medicinal wine.
The insects were handed over to quarantine authorities.
