> Over the past two days, ants have suddenly invaded my greenhouse.
> Feeding on the sticky sap on the rim, lid and front rib of Sarracenia *
> Mooreana, S. * Catesbaei and S. Leucophylia. I watched them for over
> half an hour last night, and not a single one fell into the traps much
> to my disgust. Some even descended an inch into the traps but managed
> to slowly climb out again.
> There are also a few feeding on the sap on the rims of my larger VFTs too.
> I can easily prevent them getting to my plants, by moving the plants
> away from the edge of my trays. But if the ants will provide a meal for
> my plants with no ill effects I would rather have them queing up to be
> consumed.
> Do they cause any damage by to the plants by eating the sap ?
Q: How large are the ants? If they are small enough to avoid the
hairs on the traps then perhaps they can walk around them.
In my own Sarracenias the local spp. of ants are probably the main
components of the trap contents. Often my plants have had pitchers
exuding great quantities of "sap" (actually nectar) from the
nectaries around the traps rims and the resulting flood of ants
captured by the traps have given them acid indigestion where the area
of pitcher in contact with the bulk of ant puree turns necrotic and the
pithcher is damaged. The "sap" you describe Keith is actually a sweet
exudate produced from extrafloral nectaries and has evolved to be
attractive to insects. Thus the ants eating it do no harm to the
plant.However if you want to avoid giving your plants indigestion then I
suggest avoiding letting your plants capture too many ants, although it
sounds like this is not a problem.
If you taste the sap you will see that it is sweet nectar rather than
sap. (Sounds like I am quibbling over terms but this is just for
accuracy)
Martin Henery
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia.