Ping problems

[SFLguy]

Hey, has anyone maybe seen anything that could cause this?

It was fine last week...

 

[kulamauiman]

something eating at night. slug or snail or even caterpillar

 

[DragonsEye]

Gastropod was the first thing to come to mind.

 

[SFLguy]

We just don't have any snails or slugs that small :/ actually if you look in the crown of the plant there are some dark spots, could that be something?

 

[theplantman]

From the frass I'd say caterpillar, species unknown. Snails/slugs would've left a noticeable mucus trail. I've had a few Mexican Pings get eaten on by fall armyworms.

 

[Not a Number]

http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/damage/symptoms.html

 

[SFLguy]

Hmm, is there anything I can do? Some type of spray or something?

 

[Dexenthes]

You might want to try resetting your wireless router or upgrading your internet connection.































Sorry I couldn't help it.

 

[SFLguy]

Hahaha, well I'd love to try turning it off and turning it back on again but it doesn't seem like it wants to turn off by now it should have gone into dormancy :/

 

[Dexenthes]

On a serious note I've never encountered those sorts of symptoms before. It looks like the plant has taken a serious hit too. Brace yourself for potentially losing the plant, but I very much hope that you do not!

 

[SFLguy]

That's unfortunately what I'm thinking too...

 

[DragonsEye]

With the frass in mind, I'd have to agree with Kevin ... caterpillar most likely. You can check under the leaves to make sure it isn't still there but it may have moved on to another plant. Haven't had any such attacks on my pings but I did have a caterpillar do some serious damage to some of my Drosera capensis. It was going from pot to pot, taste testing I guess. Found the little bugger and fed it to one of my widows.

​

 

[SFLguy]

Didn't find it yet unfortunately

 

[Acro]

If this is grown indoors, maybe repot, clean off all parts of the plant, repot in new media and isolate from other plants for a few days. Just a suggestion.
Good Luck!

 

[sflynn]

Definitely looks like a caterpillar, similar thing happened to all of my South east U.S. Pings with a cutworm, my least favorite pest tied with mealy's! All the pings eventually recovered after I found the cutworm, but they were eaten down to roots, so don't give up hope yet!

P.S.- a way to see if the caterpillar is still hiding in the pot is to submerse it for a few minute in water, and if it is in there they usually pop to the surface, just be careful since that's a mexi ping and I'm not entirely sure how well they take flooding.

 

[SFLguy]

It's not a Mexican ping, it's a P. grandiflora that is outside but refusing to go to sleep :/

 

[Joseph Clemens]

Your plant certainly appears to have become the meal for some errant Lepidopteran larval invader. Even here in the desert southwest, I've sometimes discovered Lepidopteran larvae munching on various CP. Sometimes they can almost completely devastate a solitary plant, before their presence is discovered. Then, locating and eliminating them is an even more complicated/difficult chore. I do try not to use many complex man made chemical pesticides. And even using Bt would be tedious and overkill, against the incidental and occasional Lepidopteran invader.

The key is to be vigilant and familiar with their handiwork, so as to identify their presence as soon as possible, then to develop a technique to locate them and remove them, expeditiously, while causing the least collateral damage to the plant(s).

Your Pinguicula grandiflora, is a very handsome specimen. I wish you all the luck with saving it from the monster(s) that are eating it.

sflynn's submersion plan sounds viable - I've used it with success.