FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Thankfully they don't eat much, but I'm not happy this time of year just due to the number of bugs out. However, my Nepenthes love it!

Ah it’s hard to tell for sure but those look like the beetles that dive bomb me at night due to the brilliant plan to have a night light above the back door. If nepenthes eat these I need a stockpile stat.

Truth be told, I'm helping my Nepenthes by catching the June Bugs, crushing their little skulls, and stuffing each pitcher full. That much buggy goodness kills the pitcher, but prompts the plant to produce a pitcher on each new leaf. Come fall, when it's time to pull them back inside, they'll have taken in enough supplemental nutrients to skate through winter.

Wait…

but prompts the plant to produce a pitcher on each new leaf

You just made this part up right? That sounds too crazy. Yeah yeah yuck it up that the new chick doesn’t know if this is another uber cool CP fact or a sinisterly silly fabrication to make me look foolish.

Well, more foolish.

Wait how did you get me to make fun of myself here? Unbelievable!

(Hey seriously is that real? If so how many of those did you hunt and what would you think about a bit of quid pro quo? You hunt em here, your nepenthes stay fabulous forever)

It is pretty much true. Not a snipe hunt.

Jade wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2024 12:42 am Wait…

but prompts the plant to produce a pitcher on each new leaf

You just made this part up right? That sounds too crazy. Yeah yeah yuck it up that the new chick doesn’t know if this is another uber cool CP fact or a sinisterly silly fabrication to make me look foolish.

In my experience, it's more often true than not. I have filled pitchers with Maxsea, and my plants respond to chemical fertilizers by only producing a pitcher on every second or third leaf. But if they get bugs, their natural food, they grow one on every leaf to catch more.

Jade wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 11:30 pm Ah it’s hard to tell for sure but those look like the beetles that dive bomb me at night due to the brilliant plan to have a night light above the back door. If nepenthes eat these I need a stockpile stat.

The ones bombing you due to the light are likely a type of June Bug called a Grapevine Beetle. Small, brown, and ~5/8ths of an inch long. The ones I'm feeding are the green June Bugs. Big, green (sometimes gold-ish), and ~1 inch long. ^^^^That's a small one.

Sarracenia purpurea and rosea plants like to snack on Japanese beetles, too. You just have to make sure that the pitcher is at least 2/3 full of water.

Jade wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 11:30 pm due to the brilliant plan to have a night light above the back door

I know the word brilliant is used sarcastically here but the choice of wording is a bit of a double entendre.

Well that’s actually a really neato thing to learn thanks.

And all the beetles I see have shiny green or blue or gold mixed kinda carapaces.

Actually was gonna try and grow some Sarr Purpurea. Just found out that Ohio doesn’t completely suck. We have a few CPs native here and that’s one.

Haha yeah good catch. I somehow missed that