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Thread: I think this should be a good gnat catcher

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  1. #1
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    Default I think this should be a good gnat catcher

    Drosera binata

    Just got this one. It's a very strange looking Sundew from Australia. I guess these get quite full, so it should be interesting to see how fungus gnats deal with this.



  2. #2
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    I love these. I've wondered if one would successfully handle the gnats that come with the territory of growing tropicals/orchids, but I've never tried this one. All of the Sundews are very cool. Let me know how it goes.

    Matt

  3. #3
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    Default

    Butterworts work great for gnats, and I prefer them to Drosera; they just look more 'tidy' to me, and I like the flowers. Plus I don't kill them, somehow.

    Drosera, though, are definitely much more cool looking vegetatively. If you felt like it, Kev, I'd be interested in seeing a pic of the whole plant.

  4. #4
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    The whole plant kind of looks like the picture, but it just came in the mail so I want to let it settle in and grow a bit before I do the official portrait. I will at some point.

    I do love the butterworts. Those flowers are so cool.

  5. #5
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    Wow Kev you have a wonderful collection of bug catchers . I really like this one , the colors are interesting . Do bugs stick to the hairs on it ? I am really about this type of plant . Long time ago I bought a Venus fly trap from a box store and promptly killed it . Gin

  6. #6
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    Gin

    I really don't know much about these so far. I'm just kind of getting into them.
    So far, I've really only grown the easy ones - the kind that like to be grown in sphag, outside for the summer and dormant in the winter.

    I guess this one likes to be outside for the summer and then grown with the chids for the winter. Since I've only had it for 1 day, that's about all I know. I was doing some Google searches and from what I read, this one is really good at catching gnats. All those little hairs trap them.

    I have a friend who supplies me with my plants. I just let him pick stuff for me. If this one grows like it's supposed to, you get a hunk if you want it.

    Kev

  7. #7
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    Louis J. Aszod
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    How does it eat the gnats? Do the little hairs secrete digestive juices and then reabsorb them?

  8. #8
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    That's my understanding. You know, Sun-DEW. The dew is the digestive stuff I think. I've seen pics of those little hairs covered with drops of the stuff.

  9. #9
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    Thats a deal when it is big enough , would not get in my hair like the fly paper strips lol Gin

  10. #10
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    Tim
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    That's a great looking plant there Kev, And once you get the dews forming it is just so amazing coz it glistens.

    I have grown a number of these and they are fantastic at catching the gnats and other small insects, of course after awhile, they aren't so pretty with all the little insects just stuck there.. in fact kinda icky, coz the insect shells stays for a long time...

    As far as growing em, they do go into dormancy during the cold weather, although I'm not sure if a warmer greenhouse environment will curtail that habit. These do flower as well, some have boring white ones and others have amazing pink colouration to them... not big but cute in that "I'm tiny so come and hug me way"

    Enjoy the gnat free environment!

    Cheers
    Tim

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