Do we like Mikey Bustos?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful or dodgy turned up and there's real charity and visibility, but the record is thinner than a big-name star's.
Mikey Bustos grew up in Toronto as the kid with a bug zoo in his parents' basement. He tried out for Canadian Idol in 2003 and made the finals of its first season, though outlets disagree on whether he came seventh or eighth. He later toured with big pop acts, but never quite broke through as a singer.
The ants are what made him. He started posting ant-farm videos around 2009 to 2010, built farms for fans in that basement, and moved to Manila in 2011 for showbiz work. AntsCanada relaunched with educational videos and now has nearly 7 million subscribers, plus factories in Beijing and Salt Lake City.
The nearest thing to a scandal is a hobbyist squabble. Some serious ant-keepers told The Hustle they no longer follow him like they used to, and critics say he chases views by adding things like baby crocodiles and staged creature fights. That's a gripe about content, not an accusation of wrongdoing, and we found no lawsuits, court cases or misconduct allegations.
On the harm check, the record is clean as far as we could see. Searches for anything he has said about trans people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate turned up nothing, and we found no sign of him platforming anyone who pushes that stuff. Absence of evidence isn't a character reference, but there's no slide into grievance here.
He came out publicly in April 2019 in an Instagram post to about 120,000 followers, and friends and public figures rallied behind him. A YouTube feature says he and his partner feared it would hurt his career, but the support was strong. It also says he now uses his platform to raise awareness about the LGBTQ+ community.
The good stuff is real. He backed the Appledrive Project, which feeds and teaches healthy habits to kids in the Philippines, helping hand out apples and toiletries to about 400 children and joining a Tacloban visit after Typhoon Yolanda. He told GMA charity work was good for his soul, and in 2023 he was credited with the first Philippine record of a shield ant species found in his own backyard.