What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Exploding pitchers...

Anyone ever have a problem with waking up in the morning, looking at your plants, and realizing a pitcher blew up in the middle of the night?

So far it happened with a Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa and a Nep. There were leaf pieces everywhere and only the very bottom of the pitcher is still intact. It doesn't look like it was dying, it looks like it blew up.
tounge.gif
 
Wierd! Sounds like something chewed it up and spat out the pieces. Were the bugs inside gone as if something was searching for food?
 
Yeah, nothing was left in them. Hmm, that's an idea, maybe racoons? There's a family up in a tree back there. But the pitcher didn't look crushed in or torn, it looks almost like a wasp that was too big, fit in, and went completely ballistic. Besides, the racoons eat cat food and garbage.
tounge.gif


From the way the pitcher looks, it definately happened from the inside out. Both times.
 
I would tend to believe something made a meal of it, or tried to make a meal of it. There's a plethora of creatures that could've done it: slugs, coons, cats, squirrels, etc. I've been battling squirrels lately. They've been going after ripening flower heads on my Sarracenia. Took me awhile to figure it out. I would just notice every occasional morning that a flower was gone, as if someone had just clipped it off near the top.
 
Any chance it's lousy neihborhood kids putting small fire crackers in your pitchers?

Pyro, any thoughts?
rolleyes.gif
 
Hehehe, schloaty, that's what I thought at first. Like I said, it's not that it was eaten, if it was eaten it wouldn't be scattered in pieces in a blast area of a one foot radius.
tounge.gif
Seriously, anyone ever have a bumble bee get caught in a three inch pitcher and actually break out?

The slugs seem to eat the tops of plants by me, the cat's outside leave my plants alone actually...kind of weird...could have been racoons...but they have food usually. I'll look for tracks near the plants or hair or slug slime, but it really just looks like it blew up.
confused.gif


Both of them.
 
Squirrels will shred things...not necessarily eat them. They will just tear plants up I guess in the process of looking for food to eat. They also got my ONE sarra flower this spring. I was so upset. Last year they tore up my plants something awful but this year there is hardly a one. Don't know why but I'm thankful. I hope it stays that way but the pecans ripening on my pecan tree probably mean the lull won't last.

Sorry to hear about your plants.
sad.gif


Suzanne
 
I have had wasps cut their way out of pitchers before.
 
That's bizzarre, Virtigo... I would suggest leaf cutter ants, but you probably don't have them where you live, and, also, if it were them, they would carry the leaf fragments back to their colony, not just leave them laying there... hmmmmm... this is wierd... BTW, if this ever happens to me, and it turns out to be squirrels, if I see them doing it, they're going to recieve ample amounts of pain. Squirrels are the only animals ever to exist that I seriously don't like. DON'T YOU DARE GET NEAR THAT GREENHOUSE, YOU FLUFFY-TAILED LITTLE @#$%^&*!!!
 
  • #10
like schoaty said that it was a firework
 
  • #11
Oooooooooh... here's what happens if I see kids messing with my CPs:

***sees them and grabs huge Utahraptor (the dinosaur) killing claw cast from on top of her living room TV and stalks towards them***

Heh heh heh heh hehhhhhhhh
 
  • #12
That's truly bizarre. Were the pitchers fully formed and open, or were they still closed and growing (i've noticed that the pitchers inflate a bit before opening, maybe it got too big too fast before it could open. But then, it would open before exploding). I would really suspect neighborhood kids, since this is the first time I've ever heard of it happening and if it were natural the phenomenon would've been documented a bit better. Thankfully I don't have to worry about evil neigborhood kids, but I may have to worry about my roomate should his opinion on CPs not match my own.

Sorry about your pitchers. are the plants themselves okay? (Huddles protectively over his Leucos and Purps).
 
  • #13
If they weren't opened yet, maybe it was too warm for them and something chemistry happened inside. U know, like... It got hot... *shrugs*

You feel me?
 
  • #15
mice would only chew it but i think the puffing idea is the best so far
 
  • #16
does the pitchers inflate right before they open becuz i have an idea
do you know if you have a balloon of cold air or anykind of air then it gets hot it pops
confused.gif
 
  • #17
The plants are fine, they were fully formed and open pitchers, kind of big. I'm guessing it was an animal, must be a coon, or something big at least. The picked up a big azalea pot and pulled the plant out, knocked the pot over, and put the plant roots down on the deck.
confused.gif
Weird. I'd say maybe they were thirsty and wanted the water...but it's been raining a bunch here and with all the trays of water, why even bother with the plant?

We do have wasps everywhere though.
 
  • #18
Weird conversation. For stuff like s.purpurea and s.catesbaei, I do enjoy popping the top when they're inflated and about to open. I was definetly a bubble-wrap popper as a kid.

It sounds like the kids pulled it up, ripped it up, and used it as confetti. What punks!
mad.gif
 
  • #19
Wickedthistle: www.snapbubbles.com

Vs. My own Theory. I'm not to sure that hot air expanding would shred a pitcher. You see. The top would just open *shrugs* I TRIED!
sad.gif


Hehe. I like your idea better.
 
  • #20
Here's a far fetched idea:

A huge storm passed through your area causing the air pressure outside to lower a lot. The cavity in the newly forming pitcher is sealed, so the air inside it can't be exchanged with the outside. The low air pressure outside causes the air inside the pitcher to expand until the pitcher bursts like helium filled balloon when it get too high in the atmosphere.

I doubt anything like this could happen, but hey, you never know.  
rolleyes.gif


EDIT: Another idea:

A punk kid looks at the puffed up new pitcher and wonders if it would pop like a paper bag. Thus he gets his two hands and smacks them together with the pitcher in between. I think that's a less far fetched idea.

Jœl
 
Back
Top