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Some Sort of Bug is Eating My Venus Flytraps Insead of Vice Versa!

SOMETHING has been eating large chunks of leafy material from my VFTs! Two or three of my typicals from the .99 cent store, my akai ryu, and now my B52 are all missing chunks of their plant flesh! I first noticed it on the Akai Ryu because a new large trap that went up was missing a significant amount of material on its leaf base suddenly, like somebody took a small paper hole punch and nibbled out chunks of it. Upon closer examination, I noticed some of my typicals had leaf bases that were the same way. I had seen a few little tiny bugs in the soil here and there which I suppose is to be expected, but there's NO WAY they could have eaten the sheer amount of tissue that was missing because they are so small and I never see them on the plants. It would take something the size of a wasp or caterpillar to do that. I'd put them outside several times before and wasn't sure if maybe it was something outside that ate them, but I decided to do a dunk in some water anyway.

Last week I submerged my 3 pots (2 pots of VFTs, and 1 sarracenia) for 2 days as a preventative measure. They came out a little worse for the wear (a couple of my akai ryu's leaves started to droop), but they are doing fine now. Anyway, this morning, I noticed one of my B52s that had a new trap that was about to open was missing a large amount of tissue around the top of the trap. In fact, it doesn't even have any tentacles/fingers there. I'm not sure if this tissue was eaten before the bath, or not, but it has me worried now that something is still eating my plants! I'll take some pics when I get home, but near as I can tell, there's nothing in the soil that is eating them. There's no infestation. Perhaps this new trap was damaged from before, but I'm still wary. I have not put them outside since before the bath.

Any idea what could be eating them? They look healthy otherwise besides the missing leafy material. In fact the Akai Ryu leaf base that got eaten is doing fine since the center of it was unharmed and only the sides got munched on. On a side note, one of my other large B52 traps caught something. Perhaps it was the culprit. I can't tell until it reopens sometime in the near future.
 
Alien1099,

I'm glad that you started this thread because I also seem to have something eating large chunks of leafy material from my VFTs. It started with my Dutch and then spread to my B52 and now my .99 cent store Vfts.

Because of this, I'm no longer bringing my VFTs outside in the afternoon. I now place them on a South side facing window.

Any help would be great!

Giovanni
 
Alien1099,

I'm glad that you started this thread because I also seem to have something eating large chunks of leafy material from my VFTs. It started with my Dutch and then spread to my B52 and now my .99 cent store Vfts.

Because of this, I'm no longer bringing my VFTs outside in the afternoon. I now place them on a South side facing window.

Any help would be great!

Giovanni

Hopefully somebody has some experience with such a problem. :)
 
Might not be a bug, could be a critter.
How does the cut look like?
 
Might not be a bug, could be a critter.
How does the cut look like?

There's not much else it could be. My plants were always elevated off the ground and the plants are relatively undisturbed/undamaged besides the removed material. It literally looks like somebody took a small 1 hole paper punch and snipped away from the outside towards the center of the leaf base.
 
Alien1099,

Today is the second day that I have been leaving my VFTs inside and the damage does seem to have stopped. I'm guessing it could have been ants because I would water my VFTs from above and then leave them outside most of the day.
Is there anyway you can bring your plants inside until you asses the damage?

Giovanni
 
My plants have been inside since I first discovered the problem a couple of weeks ago. I didn't see any new damage until this morning when I discovered the damaged trap. Maybe being submerged affected this particular trap as it was developing? I don't know. I only got a quick glance at it this morning but it looked eaten like the leaf bases on the other plants, only this time part of the trap itself was eaten. The trap hasn't fully developed/opened yet. I'll take another good look at it when I get home.
 
well it is spring....caterpillers come and go on plants D; who knows. that could explain the outside damage.
inside is a little more difficult
though the possibility of a sneaky little caterpiller still exists...who knows o_o
 
Caterpillars, grasshoppers, slugs or snails are likely culprits. I'd suspect either of the last two in Alien's case if it is still going on indoors and after immersion.

A systemic insecticide would probably take care of the first two. Bayer Advanced Dual Action Rose and Flower Insect Killer is safe to use on VFTs. Though not necessarily for indoor use - spray them outside.

Slugs and snails are probably best removed manually. Get a magnifying glass and tweezers and carefully examine every surface millimeter of your plants, pots and trays - inside and out, top and bottom. Don't forget they lay eggs so repeat examinations are in order.

Remember snails will go dormant and withdraw into their shells when conditions get too dry and become active again when things get wet.
 
  • #10
vft-1.jpg

vft-2.jpg

vft-3.jpg

vft-4.jpg

vft-5.jpg

vft-6.jpg
 
  • #11
I think I found out what it is! I took Not A Member's advice and examined the plants and soil closely and saw what appeared to be some sort of silk around one of my younger VFTs. Upon probing the soil, I exposed a freaking larva of some sort! I found a couple more as well. One that I saw was about 1 mm long. I pulled another one out about 2-2.5 mm long. They are very skinny, perhaps as thin as a thick facial hair from a man. It looks like a worm or tiny caterpillar of some sort. They are white/translucent with a black head I believe. Any idea what these nasty buggers are? Should I spray with the aforementioned spray? The one I took out of the soil moved around a bit trying to get some place but died not too long after being pulled from the soil. I guess 2 days underwater wasn't enough. :(


Edit: I did some searching and they appear to be fungus gnat larva. Supposedly they are harmless though. Something is eating my plants though!

http://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/lso/fungusgnats.htm

I know spider mites are usually associated with silk, but I don't believe that's what it is. I don't see any tiny insects on my plants at all. I only saw silky/fuzzy looking stuff in that one area of the pot.
 
  • #12
FungusGnatLarvae.jpg


could that be what you were talking about? its a fungus gnat larvae

~b
 
  • #13
Once I had something mysteriously munching one of my VFTs.

I placed the plant in a bucket and slowly filled the bucket up with water until the VFT was 3 inches below the waterline. After a few hours, I saw a small caterpillar.....

This submersion technique is great for certain pests like aphids. I've submerged VFTs for 3 days with no ill effects.

Hoep this helps.

Bill
 
  • #14
FungusGnatLarvae.jpg


could that be what you were talking about? its a fungus gnat larvae

~b

Yeah I already edited my post after realizing that's what the larva were. They don't appear to be the culprit, but something is eating my plants. :(
 
  • #17
record your camera on it overnight, kinda like those security camera. see if anything comes.
 
  • #18
Bugs don't eat plants. Don't be absurd!

In all seriousness, I'm not sure what this could be. I've thankfully only had a few of the more common pests in my collection. Slugs, perhaps? Judging by the deformations to that one petiole, it looks like a chewing bug and not a sucking one. If it is a bug at all. Is it possible your plant is stressed? The rest of the foliage looks very healthy; it could be that these few leaves were developing when something strange happened and they became malformed as a result.
Best luck,
~Joe
 
  • #19
I would treat the plants with a systemic and BT or BT and Spinosad (just found out about this one).

WikiPedia on Spinosad
Pesticide Database Entry

These will take care of many chewing insect larvae or mite including thrips. BT (specifically BTi) will get rid of the fungus gnat larvae.

These pesticides will not take care of snails or slugs - you just have to keep on the look out for them or their slime trails. Note: Bad infestations of fungus gnat larvae leave slime trials on the surface of your potting medium that look like snail tracks.
 
  • #20
I would treat the plants with a systemic and BT or BT and Spinosad (just found out about this one).

WikiPedia on Spinosad
Pesticide Database Entry

These will take care of many chewing insect larvae or mite including thrips. BT (specifically BTi) will get rid of the fungus gnat larvae.

These pesticides will not take care of snails or slugs - you just have to keep on the look out for them or their slime trails. Note: Bad infestations of fungus gnat larvae leave slime trials on the surface of your potting medium that look like snail tracks.

Thanks Not a Number. I'll check those out. I checked my plants several times last night with a flashlight after I turned off the lights and never did see anything. I'm guessing it's not a snail or slug infestation since I don't see any slime tracks anywhere.

Edit:
I picked up the Spinosad but forgot the BT. Gotta go back! :(

Edit:
Hosed my plants down with the diluted BT and Spinosad solution using a spray bottle. Hopefully this signals the end of this unchecked aggression, because it WILL NOT STAND... MAN!
 
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