Re: CP digest 362

kirk martin (SLEARN@WSUVM1.CSC.WSU.EDU)
Thu, 01 Jun 95 18:02:20 PDT

I've often heard that one should not play with your VFT traps but I couldn't re
sist and I apologize to darwin or anyone else if they've ever tried this unscie
ntific experiment. But when misting my plants I remembered that the three trigg
er hairs inside the trap are what cause the trap closure. I narrowed down my sp
ray nozzle to a straight high power stream and directly sprayed the trigger mec
hanisms. I actually sprayed them in excess of 20 times with a very powerful bur
st and varied traps in case they were unreactive. I couldn't get a single trap
to close. Amazing that these plants could distinguish the physical stimulus of
water even though direct stimulation was resulting. I also tried purposely spra
ying one hair multiple times varied that with spraying one hair followed by a s
econd different hair. Anyone else every tried this or can it be duplicated? It
stands to reason that this feature would prevent raindrops from activating the
traps but useful adaption... My curiosity at work Kirk