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Ants

I'm at my parents house for spring break and I recieved a shipment of Neps from Cooks and I put them in a terriaum until I get back up to my apartment. Today there are tons of black ants in the tank and all over my N. gracilis x ampullaria. Looks like they are mostly at the nodes where some netar is. Do you think I should be concerned and try to remove them or just leave them.
Thanks
-Nick
 
I had some regular household ants wonder into my terrarium. After watching some of them fall into the traps of my neps I still decided to get rid of them because they started bringing in eggs and I didn't want a nest in the house. Also a terrarium with ants all over it is not pleasing to the eye. I've heard people let them wonder into greenhouses because they do often fall into neps.
 
I've had ants in my new apartment for several weeks now. They certainly aren't swarming, but they do congregate at the Nepenthes. Seems to be good eatin', as far as my plants are concerned.
I've heard that in the wild, Nepenthes and ants have a symbiotic relationship; the plant feeds the colony and eats a few of the ants in return. So I doubt your plants are at risk. Of course, this also likely means that the ants won't be leaving of their own volition, so you might want to look into some ant bait or something.
Ants are fun; they work in teams!
~Joe
 
Hi Nick
My greenhouse in the warmer months has loads of ants in it and some plants are full of them which saves me feeding and they are all growing well so if ants are falling id just let them get on with it
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Bye for now julian
 
I have a swarm of ants about the size of this semicolon; that colonize in my bedroom and feed my plants,they are centralized,in all places,in a pile of salt that has formed in the hood of my goldfish tank,as well as a colony under my Neps in the wood. In the kitchen there are ones around 1 1\2 in that are much easier to hand feed to neps. I also have a swarm of house flys\ladybugs and even a few mosquitos in my room that feed my plants. Rather convenient for feeding the smallest seedling sundews all the way up to the largest nepenthes (my N.fusca sarawak could easily eat a small frog or toadlet,that thing is beutiful! Brown fuzzy pitchers nearing 4 in. long with dark red\purple spots,dark green waxy truncated leaves,a buttery yellow flared peristome,a nice eggshell white inner pitcher with crimson spots,and the thing has gone from almost nothing (late spring last year) to a huge double growth pointed 8+n. monster!!!!!
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usually in the summer i have a trail of ants leading to my kitchen window into a pitcher. My parents dont really like it though but i say it doesnt attract them.
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pond boy you have ants living in your room and kitchen?


I actually leave ant traps in the summer. I get a piece of plexi glass and leave some chewing gum on it over night. I then come back in the morning and scrap up a pile of ants with my credit card into a flask or test tube. I then stick that test tube/flask into the refrigerator for a few hours so they are easily handled with forceps. Then I feed them to my smaller neps and more sensitive ones like my campanulata.
 
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