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Moths rotting s.flava?

mabudon

Metal King
Okay, I have some S.Flava (haven't figured out any more detail on speciesyet, sorry), with what to me look like older pitchers on it... (roughly 3 feet tall)
Anyways, some of the really older ones' lids are getting kinda old looking, the red is really getting pronounced and they are getting crispy, I'm thinking that these pitchers are done (there are new ones coming)

But a few pitchers that are a bit younger have moths on them, stuck about halfway down, and where they are stuck, the pitchers
have turned brown, with sorta circular brown patches mirrored either side of the "spine"... I'm thinking of just cutting these things off, would it be a problem??

I just got the plants the other day, several D.filiformis that I got on the same day are doing fine, all are in a mix of silica sand and peat moss, which they have been growing fine in for a year or more, so I don't think the soil is the problem, but then I don't know, thus this thread

Is it a virus?? or is it just the way these plants are??? is it, in fact, the moths??? I've honestly searched this forum through and not found the answer...

PS I didn't fill the pitchers with anything
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The best description I have heard on this phenom is indigestion. Many times a pitcher will start to die around what is filling it for whatever reason. Some call it indigestion, but I find it happens most often in warmer weather than in cooler weather, so I think it may be bacteria related. Doesn't harm the plant, but the leaf is done for.
 
Thanks to you for the quick response, Bugweed, I was pretty sure it was nothing to worry about....
So should I cut off any leaves with this problem and destroy them??? That's my plan, anyways, don't want it to look all mankey
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Leave them on, they will be photosynthesising and you'll appreciate leaving them on when you have more pitchers next year.
The brown patches are normal when catching a lot of insects, or if one gets stuck. The pitcher will be fine.
 
Alvin is right. If you do not like the looks, cut it off below the "dead" spot.
 
Thank You, I had the scissors in my hand when I read Alvin's post..
I put them away
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I was just afraid that it was the start of something really bad, I'm less than a week into taking care of these and I LOVE them, wouldn't want anything preventable to wipe them out
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Ma,
I have this same issue. It does NOT hurt the plants. There is something about those strange moths that burns the pitchers like they feed on Hickory leaves of something that burns the pitchers. They only appear mid to late season. I leave them until I cannot stand them anymore.
 
Yeah, it just dies around whatever is stuck, and slowly at that. A few months ago, when Japanese beetles were still big, I went out on my deck to see four twitching legs sticking out of the sides of one of my little S. Rubra pitchers. For a second I thought it was the Alien! Turned out just to be a japanese beetle that got stuck and was trying to get out.
 
I always cut off dead material but leave as much of the normal, healthy part of the tube as I can since it will continue to photosynthesize. It may look funny but it still nets the plants more nutrients than if you cut the entire pitcher off just because the top is browned off.
 
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