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Ant Attacked Leuco

  • Thread starter CPsinSC
  • Start date

CPsinSC

Ryan + Sara
leuco_ants.jpg



Oddly enough, this is a 2 foot tall leuco pitcher, lol.

It got really fat and then opened into this dinky little thing.
I finally got a day off work today, so I dug it out of the bog.
It's been in there for about 2-3 months - transplanted from a 4" round pot.

I had a few other potted sarrs from the same source and over half of them have come down with something - bug infestation in the soil, fungus/algae attack, etc..

Not a single one of my other plants have suffered any of these problems. :)

This particular leuco was buried a little too deep in the original pot, so I was expecting to find algae/fungus as the cause. I wasn't really comfortable with bare-rooting and 'fixing' problems when I got them, but after dealing with quite a few plants now it's not intimidating at all :)

Anyways, sorry I don't have a picture of what I got to see .. was too concerned with keeping it contained. It turns out there was an ant colony in the root system of this plant. It had to be from the original pot, because it was strictly contained to the original clump of dirt. When I poured water on the dirt clump, hundreds of ants (lots carrying eggs) came fleeing out.


Since I was already having to bare-root the plant to get rid of the ants, I went ahead and divided it .. 3 leucos in 1 :)


I've heard of others having ant colonies in their pots before, but they said it didn't seem to do harm to the plant. Anybody else had my kind of experience before?
I was shocked mainly because my bog stays pretty wet and has even been under a few inches of water numerous times.
 
I have ants in one of my containers, but they don't seem to be a problem yet. I don't think they are actually in the rhizomes, just in the dirt. They are doing a nice job feeding everybody so far.

I would take the root ball and really rinse it clean so you can see how bad the damage is. Maybe they are around the roots and not actually in them.:crap: I don't know what to recommend for a poison. Hopefully one of the more experienced in the group would have an idea.

I know that ants can live up to two weeks underwater, which would explain why they are still there even when flooded.
 
not saying that ants WEREN'T a problem, but leucos do that. In summer, the first batch of pitchers for the year are skinny, tall, and have small lids. IN GENERAL. Not all do that exact thing, but mine do, and everyone else that i know have the same cycle with theirs. Hopefully in late August or so, you should get those big, fat, gorgeous pitchers you are longing for. :-D
 
I got rid of them .. completely rinsed all the media off and cleaned up the rhizomes. They were just in the dirt, but in the dirt all around the roots. Perhaps they were making tunnels along the roots?


I also have another leuco from the same source that is doing very good.
It's pitchers are rather dinky (compared to a flava), but the tops of these are no larger than the head of a small nail.
It was putting out better pitchers a few weeks ago, but the most recent batch has been like the one pictured above.



From the same plant about a month or so ago:
leucophylla.jpg
 
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They were just in the dirt, but in the dirt all around the roots. Perhaps they were making tunnels along the roots?
They could have been raising aphids on the roots. That would take away a lot of the plants energy for growth.
 
I have a hard time believing ants can live undersater for two weeks. I've soaked ant-infested plants in a bucket and the ants were drowned in a matter of minutes.
 
Eh, that's what I get for listening to Orkin commercials. ???
 
I think "up to" might be the key phrase. And it's not so far-fetched; there's a recently discovered species of ant that is amphibious with primarily aquatic habits. Odd though - I hope washing the rhizomes remedies things. I've heard of ants being a nuisance by farming pests like aphids; BCK might be on to something. If the stress persists, you might try a systemic insecticide like Orthene/Acephate.
Best luck,
~Joe
 
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