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Do pitcher traps ever fill up with bugs?

New to the pitcher plant, and was simply wondering - do pitcher traps ever totally fill up, and if so what happens to the trap (does it die/rot/keep growing)

Cheers for any help
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dan
 
Hello,
To answer your question: Yes, the pitchers can totally fill up. Or at least untill the bugs on top can't get out. Usually when the pitcher has an excess amount of bugs above the digestive zone, or about half way up the pitcher, the plant will get "indigestion", or it will start to turn brown, and the pitcher will die. All of this is normal. Every once in a while, one of my pitchers will topple over from so many bugs, filled to the brim! Hope this helps,
Kevin
 
I have a pitcher on my s.leucophylla that is totally full,they seem to have a voracius apetite for fungus gnats!
 
Every time, my Leucophylla "Tarnok" opens a new pitcher, it immediately starts to be filled with bugs. Then it will topple over. It's normal.
 
yah , when it gets too full and the pitchers can't take the weight , they will simply tip over , but if there tough enough to stay in structure , then the plant might develop necrosis on the pitcher walls and the side will rot .
 
See what gluttony will get you. Here is an example of what you were asking about.

lovebugfeastrez.jpg
 
I've even had a leucophylla get about halfway filled with bugs when an anole --one of our common ground lizards here in Florida-- decide to go in for a meal. By the time I discovered the lizard it had died in the pitcher, as well. What an odor! Oz
 
Sarracenia are pigs. I notice the picture above shows the ?leucophylla? filled with love bugs. Love bugs are the little black bugs with orange heads that, eh, stick together for a while and die. That happens twice a year here in Florida. In the Spring and Summer I don't even look in the sars pitchers. It's a bit disturbing. We have a hive or hives of bees around here. When they do their thing at least several dozens of them will decide to end it all in a sarracenia. Sometimes they fight their way back out. You don't want your face right over a pitcher when an angry bee comes out.

I keep waiting to see a dead anole in either a sarr or nep. Hasn't happened yet. The anoles are pretty cavalier about running around in my nep hanging baskets when they are up. One false move...
 
In my collection they fill up within a week of opening and rot soon afterwards causing me no little frustration. I have taken to stuffing inorganic cotton balls into the pitcher mouths soon after they begin to feed, with varied success - but hey, it's better than nothing!
 
  • #10
Yeah, my Sarracenia get their fill of Yellowjackets and flies, but very rarely get to the point where they fall over.

-Homer
 
  • #11
Well, I know my minors certainly got filled to the throat with houseflies when I was visiting relatives in NC (bought them there.. the minors, not the relatives
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), and the pitchers eventually started to rot. Totally normal.. so the answer to your questions are yes and they rot.

Houseflies.. that Goldsboro military base in NC gots lots!!!!!!

Hope this helps!
FTG, a.k.a. lovesick Kenny-Chesney-lunatic
 
  • #12
Ladybugs wedged themselves into my juvinal pitchers for hybernation last fall, the traps looked like pea pods, lol.
 
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