hey guys, its this newbie again
well I was feeding my plants today, actually more like 2 hours ago, whilst doing a general look over of all the plants when I noticed my N. maxima x miranda's newest tendril with a forming pitcher about one cm looked as though it had dryed out, or was half way "sucked dry" or something (you see the picture I'm painting?). Well what I really should say first is that this plant just produced it first pitcher for me since I've had it, and its absolutly beautiful. A good 6" pitcher, a giant in my collection of 1" to 3" pitchering plants. It only took this leaf about two and a half weeks of it to fully form the pitcher then about three days for the lid to pop. The peristome is still flaring out a bit it seems. Ok enough history (for now).
Back to what just happened. Upon futher inspection of the leaf and tendril/infant picther I find this "bug" about three cm up the tendril from the infant pitcher. I'm not sure what it was, I killed it after staring at it for about a minute or two. It was about 1 to 2 mm and it was a greenish yellow. BUT the interesting part is that at the tip of its abdomin it was bright red. Almost as if it was trying to emulate the red spotted tendril, I guess not almost, IT WAS pure emulation! I looked over the rest of the plant but couldn't find any more, couldn't find any on any of the other plants either.
Ok, sorry but more history. About two weeks ago I was kindly given a cutting of N. gracilis, a very pretty one at that. The person who gave it to me, who shall remain nameless; he can choose to reveal his identity if he so wishes. Well this cutting which was in my possesion for about three days on my window shelve when upon further examination we found, I and the giver of the cutting in question, found what appeared to be some sort of segmented parasite. Almost like a scale. Are there any reef keepers out there? It looked like a small white CHITON!!!!!!
Now the grow that gave me this cutting is skilled grower of highlands and has been growing for many years and am sure is respected in respect to his plants. Neither I nor he could identify this lowly pest. Well since only one leaf was affected with this unidentible creatures of abomination that leaf was quickly excised and desposed of. Ok back to the present.
Now even though this new, lets just refer to it as the "red rump" aphid is completly different then the pest found weeks ago on the N. gracilis could this have been related? Its also feasible that since this N. gracilis harbored those other pests it also could have carried this one "bug" to my N maxima x miranda.
Like a good newbie I searched the forums and my books first before writing this whole thing but still couldn't come toa stable conclusion.
So My questions are, that is if I didn't make this long enough already:
1. What could this "red rump aphid" be?
2. Could those chiton-esque pests from the N. gracilis be the larvae of this red rump denizen?
3. If indeed this is an aphid (which I suspect so) how do I kill it safely without harming my favorite plant?
if you even read this whole thing I thank you, I appreciate it.
....help...
well I was feeding my plants today, actually more like 2 hours ago, whilst doing a general look over of all the plants when I noticed my N. maxima x miranda's newest tendril with a forming pitcher about one cm looked as though it had dryed out, or was half way "sucked dry" or something (you see the picture I'm painting?). Well what I really should say first is that this plant just produced it first pitcher for me since I've had it, and its absolutly beautiful. A good 6" pitcher, a giant in my collection of 1" to 3" pitchering plants. It only took this leaf about two and a half weeks of it to fully form the pitcher then about three days for the lid to pop. The peristome is still flaring out a bit it seems. Ok enough history (for now).
Back to what just happened. Upon futher inspection of the leaf and tendril/infant picther I find this "bug" about three cm up the tendril from the infant pitcher. I'm not sure what it was, I killed it after staring at it for about a minute or two. It was about 1 to 2 mm and it was a greenish yellow. BUT the interesting part is that at the tip of its abdomin it was bright red. Almost as if it was trying to emulate the red spotted tendril, I guess not almost, IT WAS pure emulation! I looked over the rest of the plant but couldn't find any more, couldn't find any on any of the other plants either.
Ok, sorry but more history. About two weeks ago I was kindly given a cutting of N. gracilis, a very pretty one at that. The person who gave it to me, who shall remain nameless; he can choose to reveal his identity if he so wishes. Well this cutting which was in my possesion for about three days on my window shelve when upon further examination we found, I and the giver of the cutting in question, found what appeared to be some sort of segmented parasite. Almost like a scale. Are there any reef keepers out there? It looked like a small white CHITON!!!!!!
Now the grow that gave me this cutting is skilled grower of highlands and has been growing for many years and am sure is respected in respect to his plants. Neither I nor he could identify this lowly pest. Well since only one leaf was affected with this unidentible creatures of abomination that leaf was quickly excised and desposed of. Ok back to the present.
Now even though this new, lets just refer to it as the "red rump" aphid is completly different then the pest found weeks ago on the N. gracilis could this have been related? Its also feasible that since this N. gracilis harbored those other pests it also could have carried this one "bug" to my N maxima x miranda.
Like a good newbie I searched the forums and my books first before writing this whole thing but still couldn't come toa stable conclusion.
So My questions are, that is if I didn't make this long enough already:
1. What could this "red rump aphid" be?
2. Could those chiton-esque pests from the N. gracilis be the larvae of this red rump denizen?
3. If indeed this is an aphid (which I suspect so) how do I kill it safely without harming my favorite plant?
if you even read this whole thing I thank you, I appreciate it.
....help...
