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?

David Shepherd wrote:

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


--
to reply, change ( .not) to ( .net)

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

On Sat, 27 May 2006 17:53:09 +0100, "David Shepherd"
wrote:

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?





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.



"Lar" wrote in message
t...
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

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.





"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 May 2006 17:53:09 +0100, "David Shepherd"
wrote:

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?





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.

I was waiting for something like this



"Carl 1 Lucky Texan" wrote in message
. net...
David Shepherd wrote:

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


--
to reply, change ( .not) to ( .net)

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.



"Lucky" wrote in message
ups.com...
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

"David Shepherd"
wrote in :

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.

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
--
"Fascism would be better described as corporatism,
since it is marriage between the state and business"
- Benito Mussolini

"David Shepherd"
wrote in :

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.

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
--
"Fascism would be better described as corporatism,
since it is marriage between the state and business"
- Benito Mussolini

I agree. they grow in bogs, but not in water. it is rotting. INgrid

Lar wrote:

In article , daveshep666
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



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List at
http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/
sign up: http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?...s=Group+lookup
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I receive no compensation for running the Puregold list or Puregold website.
I do not run nor receive any money from the ads at the old Puregold site.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zone 5 next to Lake Michigan

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.





"David Shepherd" wrote in message
...
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?

Garrapata wrote:
On 28 May 2006 20:59:20 -0700, "Lucky" wrote:

/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..."

Perhaps that is a reaction to your care, but mine blooms annually and
show no signs of stress

A healthy flytrap should flower annually in spring-summer. Depending on
growing conditions they may also flower in autumn, especially if the
spring flowers are removed and the plant has more energy reserves than
it knows what to do with. Anecdotal evidence suggests that flowering
weakens the plant. Realistically, if the plant is growing strongly,
flowering slows down vegetative growth a little but the plants continue
to grow well. Cutting the flowers off will, however, divert energy to
vegetative growth and, lets face it, you grow these plants for the
leaves. If a plant is struggling to start with letting it flower can
take away enough energy to severely affect its health.

/Did you purchase it at Walmart per chance?

I don't patronize Wal Mart but friends do and they bring home some
interesting and well grown plants

/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....

Fly-Traps aren't the easiest things to grow, they are sensitive to soil
and water.

A very important point, although I don't necessarily agree with them
not being easy to grow. These things are killed with misguided kindness
more often than not. They're not suited to high nutrient/salt
concentrations. As such, they need a nutrient depleted potting mix (eg
sphagnum or peatmoss + sand/perlite), low ppm water
(distilled/DI/RO/rain water) and no fertiliser. Die hard carnivorous
plant nuts will use dilute fertiliser but unless you have an extra few
plants you don't mind killing, getting fertilising right can be more
miss than hit. Other than than remember they like full sun and are
temperate bog plants. They like moisture, humidity but also good air
circulation. Most of all they require a cool dormancy period or they'll
eventually fade away.

I killed a bunch before I got one to survive. Mine is in a
large glass fish bowl with several inches of gravel and peat. It only
gets dionized water or rainwater and very dilute fish 4 times a
year(plus what it catches). It is in an east facing picture window that
gets strong early morning sun. It shares the bowl with a small Nepenthes
which is also happy

David Shepherd wrote:
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.



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