Carnivorous plants...

[Rich Z]

Later this afternoon Connie and I were catching small grasshoppers off of the fruit trees and feeding them to the venus flytraps. Country (huckleberry) living doesn't get any better than this!

[Rich Z]

I've got seeds!








Looks like I lost some during the rain that came through before I got home from being out of town, but at least they dropped into the bog tubs. So they aren't really lost, just that I was unable to collect them. I propped some of the flower/seed stalks up with some bamboo stakes that were leaning outside of the tubs, so good thing I did that. Otherwise those seeds would have been lost in the grass around the bog tubs.

I collected the rest and there are still a lot more to come. Looks like one of my smaller fly traps is putting out a late flower stalk, so I should have more, I guess, later on. Do they flower more than once a season?

The plants seem to have fared well through this stage, as they were all putting out new traps the entire time they were flowering and setting seed. Plus I was catching small grasshoppers out of Connie's garden to feed them, so I guess that helped. Sure wish they would catch yellow flies! They would have had bulging bellies this year.

Now I just have to set up some of the seeds to try to grow them and see how that goes. Should be pretty neat to see little tiny venus fly traps growing up if I'm successful getting them to sprout.

[THOR]

Now that's really neat. Never seen seed pods of Venus Flytrap. Always thought they survived in tropical climate only.

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by THOR

Now that's really neat. Never seen seed pods of Venus Flytrap. Always thought they survived in tropical climate only.

Yeah, that's likely why a lot of people kill them. I know I killed a few a long while back thinking they needed to be enclosed in a terrarium. But they come from near Wilmington, NC as their native habitat, so that pretty much tells the kind of climate they need. I've heard that some people have established colonies of them hear and there. One is supposed to be near Hosford here in north Florida, not far from where I live.

[Rich Z]

The seeds from my venus flytraps are beginning to sprout!











Looks like some of my sundews (burmani) are coming along too. Still small as all get out, but at least they are alive.

[Rich Z]

Surprisingly enough, the venus fly trap seeds are nearly all sprouting. I decided to snatch some pics of them before Connie moved them into the two tubs with the other larger plants. I guess I may have to move some of them around and maybe set up more tubs when they get bigger. Hopefully they will do OK out there.... But I couldn't keep them where they were much longer as the sundews I set up seemed to succumb to mold. Figured I had better move these guys why they were still looking strong.

[Rich Z]

After putting the baby fly traps in the mini bogs, it looks like most of them are doing fine and making little traps to catch their own meals.

[Rich Z]

And of course I took some pics of the older fly traps while I had the camera in hand.....

[navy2kcoupe]

Do they eat 'skeeters?
MAJOR plus if they do!
Andy

[Rich Z]

Well, I'm not sure. Evidently they have some sort of nectar in the traps to attract insects, but I'm not sure the nectar attracts mosquitoes. I know that recently an ant colony decided to start a nest in one of the tubs right under a couple of the fly traps, and over the couple of days I was trying to figure out a way to kill off the ants without damaging the plants, the fly traps took care of them. Evidently ants make up the bulk of their actual diet. Looking at the leaves leading to the traps, they appear to be a natural death walk leading ants into the traps.

As for mosquitoes, I would be tempted to recommend the thread style sundews for them. Those sticky leaves sticking up into the air would probably catch quite a few skeeters, even those that accidentally alight on them to roost.