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Little worms

Last year my green dragon was doing great. This year after dormancy the plant is shooting plants but with very small traps, many of them are not even compleatly developed and don't open. I recently noticed lots of microscopic white worms all over the plant and inside the traps. Does this has to do with the poor growth of the plant? I'm using lots of light and distiled water and everything, just like last year.
Also I bought a dente and a regular VFT (all bareroot) and their traps turn black before the trap opens...they come out green but start to turn black before they are compelatly developed. What could be the problem?
 
Hey Giorgio,

If it hasn't been said before


*****Welcome to the Forums!!!*****

Now first off, can you give us a little more info? Substrate, temps, watering style...

Are the little worms somewhat translucent at all? My first guess would normally be fungus gnat larvae...especially this time of year.

My opinion of fungus gnat larvae is very very bad. I hate the little buggers with a passion. In large groups they can do damage...


But I digress, give us a little more info before I jump to more conclusions and just start to rant about fungus gnat larvae.
smile.gif
 
Thanks for the reply. Yes, the little worms are translucent, but super tiny. I have my plants in the bathroom under one of those special bulbs (white light I think is called). The temp must be arround 70-75 degrees. I'm using soil that I bought from this website and also I'm using distiled water as allways... I pour the water in the tray so it can get sucked up from the bottom of the roots. I'm doing the same things I did last year, and my plant was super healthy the whole time, until now (After dormancy).
 
Sounds like fungus gnat larvae to me.

After dormancy there is naturally going to be some dead parts to the plant. Normally this time of year when the snow melts and the temps warm up fungus gnat larvae appear all over the place to "clean up". They enjoy damp peaty soils. Usually almost anyone growing their plants on the tray system will see a fungus gnat, which aren't problems, they're food.
smile.gif
The larvae on the other hand can have a very nasty streak to them. A quick fix is to let the media dry out somewhat, but a problem with that is that the larvae are pretty vengeful and have a strong sense of survival. If they run out of food, or moisture, they tend to bore into the plant in search of it. Kind of a catch 22.

I had them last year destroy some very nice VFT's along with severing a ton of leaves off of my pings.

I'm still not exactly sure how to deal with them, but since then I try to stay away from keeping my plants consistenly wet.

In my opinion, if the plant isn't already stressed, i'd attempt to repot...but then again, if there are other fungus gnat around they could lay more eggs on the substrate.

You could also try putting it in a bag. Fungus gnat larvae I believe are only larvae for a period of 72 hrs or so.
 
Thanks for your answer. So these things are the ones causing my plant not to develop big complete traps? and making some leafs turn black before traps open?
Any pesticide would work?
 
Try that new fungicide 4 stuff, it's fungicide, miltcide insectcide, and pestcide in 1
 
A vft that I was growing was getting seriously stressed. The traps weren't developing fully, and it overall looked sick.


I unpotted the flytrap, and proceeded to soak it in a solution of superthrive and water...then I noticed these little worms wriggling free from the inside of the rhizome trying to escape and get to some air so as not to drown.

Wait....there's an idea....you could submerge it for a few days...worked for D. aliciae for me. You just have to see how stressed the plant is.

Orthene would probably also work.
 
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