How much bugs do your plants catch or lack off?

[ps3isawesome]

I have them outside in a water tray system except my Nepenthes sits below them on a rack that's close to the ground.

So all my plants catches flying insects except the Nepenthes, it catches both.

Sometimes I feel like I am missing out on catching other insects than flying for the majority of my plants.

Do your plants act as insecticides? I noticed a decrease of wasps population in my backyard.

Also after a couple of months, I noticed the plants caught less insects.

So I had my dog poo near the grow area and NOW all my plants are so full with different size flies.

I must admit, the interaction between bugs and plants is one of the reason why I love CPs.

 

[theplantman]

At home, I have a large collection of Sarracenia. On hot summer days I've seen alatas and rubras become filled to the brim with fire ants in a single day. My flytraps often catch spiders and daddy longlegs. Threadleaf sundews are usually filled with a variety of stuff. I would also say that over time 30-50% of my pitchers are burned because they've trapped some huge insect like a moth or wasp. Palmetto bugs really seem to like Sarracenia too.

Right now, since my leucophyllas are giving quite a fall show, if I visit the Sarr collection at night it's a high-traffic zone for moths. They are flying around everywhere.

It's been my experience that the diversity of life I see has increased from keeping a large collection of CPs. Frogs in the water trays, dragonflies, water bugs of all sorts. Spiders and robber flies lurking. Wasps, butterflies, moths--everything that likes nectar is out there during the day. Ants set up colonies all surrounding my collection so they can get to the nectar. It's crazy. I'm lucky to enjoy a rural existence within their native range, so that may explain some of this. However, my feeling--and what I try to convey when I teach people about growing CPs--is that they support biodiversity much more than they subtract from it.

The greenhouses I manage are a different story. We used to have cockroaches inhabiting the CP room but as I expanded the collection, the plants trapped all of them. Most bugs are excluded by screens. The only thing I regularly get are Argentinian ants. I have to artificially feed everything for it to survive long-term, and that has taught me a great deal about the nutritional needs of CPs.

 

[cpbobby]

yep.....its not uncommon at all to hear my sarracenia buzzing. leuco's seem to be the best at it.

 

[DJ57]

Dog poo, great idea!

My sarrs catch so many flying insects, many of which are yellow jackets, that some pitchers fill to the brim and topple over. Some bugs also leave holes in the side of sarr pitchers trying to eat their way out. They also catch lots of ants. I never have to worry about the sarrs, dews, or VFT getting enough to eat on their own outside, the dews get smothered with insects. Before I had my outside CP collection we had a big fly problem in the house, but not anymore as they have quite a gaunlet to pass through on their way to the house, haha. However, as theplantman said I also notice more moth activity at night since the CPs got here but they flock to the CPs and never make it to the house.

 

[mato]

How much bugs do my plants catch or lack off.. Well, the Sarracenia caught much bugs while I had them, but the Nepenthes - seeing as they're grown indoors - have idle pitchers and therefore lack off more than I'd care to admit.

 

[DragonsEye]

Don't get a ton of bugs with my pings or dews but, then, I am in a 3rd floor apt. When I first put my pings and dews outside this past spring, they caught an impressive number of midges -- but springtime seems to be midge "prime time". As the summer progressed and the midge population dwindled, so did the number of bugs caught by both the pings and the dews. My sole vft has captured the odd fly here and there. More recently, several of its traps had a yellow jacket in them. I suspect the cooler weather may be a contributing factor .... mainly that the hornets are moving too slowly to get out of harms way in time.

Despite the fairly large number of orb weavers on my balcony, haven't noticed any of them getting caught by the vft nor the dews.

Now that all but the vft have been moved indoors, I expect I'll only see the stray fungus gnat or fruit fly trapped now and then by the dews or pings.

 

[Dragoness]

My outdoor CP's eat well - I planted other flowering plants near the bog that regularly draw bees, flies and other insects to the area. I figure I want insects near the bog, not only for feeding, but for pollination as well, when things flower.

My indoor ones eat well, too, mostly because there is a fruit fly population in my house, that is very difficult to separate from my cockroach colonies, so I gave up. On that note, Drosera are pigs, and I love them.

This time of year, if flies get in the house, they tend to linger downstairs, and putting a Sarr out on the kitchen counter for a day or two seems to do the trick.

 

[NatchGreyes]

At home, I have a large collection of Sarracenia. On hot summer days I've seen alatas and rubras become filled to the brim with fire ants in a single day. My flytraps often catch spiders and daddy longlegs. Threadleaf sundews are usually filled with a variety of stuff. I would also say that over time 30-50% of my pitchers are burned because they've trapped some huge insect like a moth or wasp. Palmetto bugs really seem to like Sarracenia too.

Right now, since my leucophyllas are giving quite a fall show, if I visit the Sarr collection at night it's a high-traffic zone for moths. They are flying around everywhere.

It's been my experience that the diversity of life I see has increased from keeping a large collection of CPs. Frogs in the water trays, dragonflies, water bugs of all sorts. Spiders and robber flies lurking. Wasps, butterflies, moths--everything that likes nectar is out there during the day. Ants set up colonies all surrounding my collection so they can get to the nectar. It's crazy. I'm lucky to enjoy a rural existence within their native range, so that may explain some of this. However, my feeling--and what I try to convey when I teach people about growing CPs--is that they support biodiversity much more than they subtract from it.

The greenhouses I manage are a different story. We used to have cockroaches inhabiting the CP room but as I expanded the collection, the plants trapped all of them. Most bugs are excluded by screens. The only thing I regularly get are Argentinian ants. I have to artificially feed everything for it to survive long-term, and that has taught me a great deal about the nutritional needs of CPs.

I live outside the native range of most Sarracenia, but, for my outdoor plants (Sarracenia, VFT, some Drosera), they are well fed by harvestmen (daddy long legs) and other crawling and flying insects. Where I live, the flying insects are more periodical. When they fly through, they feed the taller Sarrs, but, for the most part, most of the outdoor plants are fed by crawling insects. And, as above, the more plants I have, the greater the diversity of insects which feed them.

For my indoor plants, they catch small gnats and other insects which happen to get inside, but, for the most part, they are fed like most everyone else's on here - via fertilizer.