Re: Drosera and ants

Bob Beer (bbeer@u.washington.edu)
Wed, 24 Aug 1994 16:55:32 -0700 (PDT)

I have found that unless the ants are *very* small and the Drosera are
*very* big (Sorry, Lynn and Gray Poole! [obscure reference?]), the ants
are just too strong and sturdy to remain trapped and usually manage to
get out. (Of course you can smash the ant, but that seems to be cheating
to me. :) The leaf dying off may be due to the fact that most ants when
distressed, expel formic acid, and certainly have it in their bodies even
if they don't expel it.

On Wed, 24 Aug 1994, Brian Jones wrote:

> >
> > Well, a long time ago, I had a Drosera rotundifolia and I tried feeding
> > it ants. It didn't like to have ants on its leaves for some reason.
> > I'd stick an ant there, and the leaf would expire a few days later.
> > I have not tried feeding Drosera ants since then.
> >
> > ---Steve
> >
>
> Well, since I've got more ants than flies these days, I'll try
> it out on the various mutant Drosera that I have (the ones that
> are trying to take over the world...).
>
> -BJ
>