Rising demand from the outside has helped push up prices that peasant harvesters are getting.
"A few years ago they cost half as much," said Hernando Medina, the province's main exporter.
Not everyone is cashing in. Jorge Raul Diaz maintains 37 ant colonies on a small farm outside Barichara, but in homage to native culture, he gives them away.
During last year's harvest, he organized the first culona-gathering contest, in which 22 participants competed over two months to see who could bag the most insects.
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