Fungus Knats

[Leiopo]

I recently got a baby Dente, with traps up to 5/8 inches long. I've got an abundance of fungus knats at home, and initially thought these would be ideal food.

Well, my VFT doesn't even notice with two live knats crawling right in the sweetspot of one of its traps! I finally got the trap to close using a strand of hair, but the trap was open again the next day, with both knats dead but untouched with no sign of digestion. Are they simply too small for the VFT to even care? The knats are about 1/8 inch long. Has anybody ever fed fungus knats to their VFT with any success? Thanks in advance.

PS - do VFT's eat ants?

 

[beatnik]

I've read on this board that ants are a bad idea, but I never got the why.

I'm assumuing it's because they're strong insects with strong jaws and a tendency to bore through things, and probably don't take too kindly to being eaten.

-BEATNIK

 

[unknownclown]

Ok if the traps are small enough they will eat the gnats I have some tiny seedlings that eat them, but I wouldnt depend on vfts to rid your plants of the gnats I think the most effective plants are sundews and butterworts. And even those arent 100%.
Ants arent the best to feed them since they can damage the traps and if the plant is where the ants friends can find it they will try to get the ant out dead or alive and could end up ruining your trap getting it out.
But if you can't control the urge to feed your plant ants maim the sucker first and put the plant where the ants buddies can't rescue it. Oh and make sure that the ant isnt too big I dont know the size of them there but we have some huge carpenter ones here I woudn't dream of feeding my vfts they look like the traps wouldn't even slow them down.

 

[Alvin Meister]

One of my VFTs keeps eating gnats - it must have sensitive hairs or something. It's annoying though because I'm sure it wastes more energy digesting it than it receives. You want to keep gnats away from VFTs in general - if a lot of them lay eggs you can be over run by the worm like larvae.