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a few nep questions

i have 2 questions about neps.
1. my ventrata opened a pitcher recently now it is closed, why is this.? my conditions havnt changed at all.
2. my rafflesiana pitcher is about 3 months old and feels like the digestive fluid is hardened up, i fed it quite a bit of milk before. do the juices ever harden up for any reason?
thanks
 
1. The only reason Nep lids ever close is from a drop in humidity or not being watered enough, or the lid has been snapped and is just dangling there.

2. Why are you feeding an insectivorious plant milk in the first place?
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I suggest getting a bag of crickets from the Pet Smart or PetCo and keeping them in the freezer(they store indefinately). You can put a couple crickets in a cup of warm water until it defrosts and feed it to your open pitchers every week or two. Your plants will grow like gangbusters!
 
Has anyone tried the "can o crickets." It's cheaper than buying live ones and they are already dead.
Quite a few people have tried milk, some successfully. There is a thread somewhere here...
I think you use it sparingly and nothing fattier than 1%.

Cheers,

Joe
 
<span style='color:teal'>Hello!  
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Well.... I have a very high natural humidity... It is most of the time above 75%, except in the dry season, and even in dry season the humidity never drops bellow 50%.

When it has been raining constanly and copiously, all my ventricosa plants and all the hybrid that have ventricosa close the lid, not entirely, but the lid is almost touching the front part of the peristome. Then, when it is more sunny and the rain is not that heavy, the lid are more horizontal. In dry season the lids are almost vertical... So my conclusion is that this is a way for them to protect themselves from rain filling their pitchers.

I guess the humidity must have gotten up in your region.

About milk in the pitchers, i use this method once every month, and belive me, the next pitchers after using milk are huge in comparison with the previous. I have never had any problems with the pitchers that were fed milk, but instead, as i said, i have had excellent results.  
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Hey Joe,
I use the can o crickets. As far as I can tell, it works fine. I don't get rot, and my plants are growing nicely, but I generally have one of each plant so I can't tell if it's better or worse than other feeding methods. I've never fertilized.

Capslock
 
I've been using freeze-dried crickets and asian tree ants.  Seems to work well. (I also foliar feed once a month.)
 
You shouldn't get any rot from the bugs as long as you make sure they are appropriately sized, i.e. they are submerged completely in the pitcher fluid when you drop them in. If part of a bug is sticking out of the fluid fungus can attack the exposed leg or wing and start a rot going. I buy live cos I buy a lot (cheaper in big qunatities) when all my plants are pitchering and large I can feed them 150 -200 crickets in one night!

I was only kidding about the milk, I did that in the begining too but I opt for the natural gory way, it's all part of the Nepenthes esoterra!
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i now know why my pitchers had fungus on them (the criket didnt fall all the way in). i was wondering how long it wiould take to get a good sized pitcher, because mine are like the size of my pinky. i know it mostly depends on the onditions and species, but i was wondering if an estemated guess was possible. my pitchers are not that big soo i mainly feed with milk until summer then i can use ants, nats, maybe flys and slugs. will get a renew on my pitchers soon
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o and thanks for all your help guys i appreciate it
 
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