Something is eating my Venus Fly Trap. I don't know what it is. The existing leaves are being eaten and turning yellow then dying, the new growth is coming up red but then turning black before the traps have a chance to open. I can not see anything living in the pot. Is there anything I can do to kill this pest?
It's obviously an Ironic Bug.
lol! sorry
Carl
In article , daveshep666 @___REMOVE_THIS___hotmail.com says... :) Something is eating my Venus Fly Trap. I don't know what it is. The existing :) leaves are being eaten and turning yellow then dying, the new growth is :) coming up red but then turning black before the traps have a chance to open. :) I can not see anything living in the pot. Is there anything I can do to kill :) this pest? :) Your description sounds like mine I have around a pond waterfall, when it gets too wet. I move it so there is not any water splash on the plant and the new growth seems fine.
Lar
Venus Fly trap is sensitive and temperamental. It needs full sun, high humidity, damp soil. Use distilled or rainwater, no fertilizer, avoid teasing/feeding the traps. I'm wondering if this plant will do well on the edge of my spring-fed pond, east TN.
That could be it. I have been keeping the plant very wet in an attempt to drown the pest that is eating it, maybe its time to let the soil dry out a little and see what happens. Thanks for the tip.
The plant is in the second year of life, I've only ever given it rainwater and deionised water. It has plenty of sun, but maybe not much humidity. It started to grow a flower just before these problems happened. I cut the flower off after reading that it takes too much energy from the plant. Hopefully it was the right thing to do.
I was waiting for something like this :)
Uh-Oh! Usualy flowering in fly-traps is not a good sign! It's one of those, "I'm gonna die, so time to hurry up and reproduce things..."
Did you purchase it at Walmart per chance?
I got one from there and have been having problems with it. Then again, I got it from Walmart, so I guess I can't expect the best condition....
One thing I learned is that each trap only works about 3 or 4 times before dying. A pesky youngster who often plays with the traps can actualy kill the plant overtime, so I told my neice that this was the plant from "Little Shop of Horors, i.e. "Audrey II", and that it will eat her if she gets to close.....
-Jason
Oh no, I hope this plant will not die. The condition gets worse every day now. I was so careful last summer, and gave it a nice cold place to rest over the winter. In spring the plant came back to life with big red traps, the best I have ever managed.
Today I will cut off all the dead traps, even the new ones are coming up black so they can go too. I will post the results if there is any change in condition.
Oh, and the plant was not from Walmart, it was from a garden centre. They probably used tap water on it.
"David Shepherd" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:
never water from the top. place a potted fly trap in a dish with stones & water to the surface of the stones. they need humidity but hate being soaked... kinda like African violets.
how does one deal with aphids on a pitcher plant? the ladybugs end up getting eaten... lee
"David Shepherd" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:
cutting the flowers is usually recommended for indoor fly traps, but i had one for 5 years that had 3 or 4 flowers per year... it died when i had propane installed & the vent was under the window where i had the fly trap :( my sundew used to bloom in the winter & reseed its self. lee
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Thank you to everyone who has given me advice.
I hope there is still time to save the plant.
From now on my plant will get lots of sunlight and humidity. It will be watered from the bottom using only rain water or distilled water, with no splashes being allowed to get on the leaves. I will cut off any flowers that start to appear, and will not let anyone make the traps shut unless there is something to eat inside.
Given the apparent health of the plant, cutting the flower was probably for the best. Fowering diverts energy away from vegetative growth. If the plant is struggling it may not have enough energy to spare. BTW, flowering is perfectly normal for flytraps. It's generally not a sign of poor health. Unfortunately flytrap flower cues often take precedence over ability. You're obviously doing right with regard to water quality and sunlight. How much is 'not much humidity'? 60-80% is around optimal but mine are outside and get down to 30-40% in summer without much set back so long as the water is kept up to them. A few questions: How big is the pot?
4"-6" pots are suitable (or bigger if you want). The 2" pots are OK for seedlings etc but they do restrict root growth and if you're watering by sitting the pot in a tray of water (as is usually recommended) it can stay a little too wet. With pots over 4" you can sit the pot in an inch of water the plant will still have enough root space above the water level.When was the last time it was repotted? Peatmoss + sand mixes are most common for these plants. Unfortunately, wet peat (which flytraps like to grow in) sours easily. Replacing the mix every two years is recommended. It might be a little late in the season to disturb the roots and repot yours. Repotting in winter/early spring is recommended (ie when it's dormant). You may be able to buy time until then by 'potting up' the plant into a larger pot using fresh peat mix (2 peatmoss: 1 sand) around the undisturbed rootball.
Did you let it go dormant? Flytraps are native to southern North Carolina crossing over into the northern part of South Carolina. ie they are temperate plants and need a cool winter dormancy. ~Zone 8-10 winter minimums will probably give the best rest period. If you're in a subtropical/tropical area or growing them indoors (windowsill/terrarium) you will need to find a way of providing them with a ~3 month cool dormancy period.
If you really want to succeed with these plants, I'd suggest you do yourself a huge favour and track down The Savage Garden by Peter D'amato. It's reasonably priced (I think it's still in print), and gives a fairly thorough coverage of how to grow flaytraps and most other carnivorous plant genera. The writer is an accomplished grower of carnivorous plants so the info is reliable. To be honest, you've got the most important requirement (low ppm water) under control. With a bit of fine tuning in your culture you'll soon realise that flytraps are dead easy to grow.
Good luck, Andrew
Hi Andrew
Thank you for the amazing amount of information you have put into this post. It seems there is still so much to learn about these plants. I managed to track down a copy of Savage Garden on Amazon, and have it on order. Hopefully this will help me to finally manage to grow these plants successfully.
Your welcome. FWIW I have maybe a few hundred flytraps growing outside in Melbourne, Australia (equivalent to the lower end of USDA10). They're in 6" pots sat in 1" deep water trays in a protected spot that gets full sun. Other than filling up the water tray, I leave them to their own devices and they thrive. Andrew
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