FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Daniel_G wrote:I don't know where you got that information from, but it's not right.

I've seen people write that flytraps tend to lose their traps if they eat ants. Perhaps that's where MICKEY was getting his information.

But you're right Daniel, many CPs eat a lot of ants in the wild including Nepenthes and Cephalotus.

For my Sundews i buy flightless fruit flies, leave them in fridge for a few minutes (to sedate them :devil) then loosely sprinkle
them over my plants.

Ants produce Formic acid when they bite, i expect this is probably worse for the VFT than an ordinary insect bite.

I have said before in other posts that ants may harm Fly traps, if they are stinging variety, which is true, and their stingers are completely apposable, and can move in a ny direction.

A sundew, Ceph, Nep, or any other type of carnivorous plant will be fine, because an ant drowning or stuck, does not sting. They only sting when threatened, if they are merely stuck, they will probably try to use their mandibles, and (tongues?) to get at the mucilage.

SnapSnapIOM wrote:http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/4424/img0496bm.jpg

Nice pic.

Every single cp that I have (excluding pings) love to eat ants my nepenthes,
my sarracenia(its pitchers are sometimes full along with flies)my sundews,and
my cephalotus.

Jaws wrote:For my Sundews i buy flightless fruit flies

Do you buy them a few at a time? or do you have a colony and actually breed the suckers for infinite food? I thought about buying some fly food and then breeding them to feed to my plants. They look to be pretty nutrient filled.

you can buy a culture at a store that sell reptiles for around $15us,or sometimes if you go to a college bio dept you can get a left over culture from a genetics class

MICKEY wrote:you can buy a culture at a store that sell reptiles for around $15us,or sometimes if you go to a college bio dept you can get a left over culture from a genetics class

I'll look into that when my plants get larger, Thanks Mickey