FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello,

Before i go into detail here I just wanted to advise that I'm a pretty experienced grower of all kinds of carnivorous plants. I've not come across this issue before and hoping someone with experience can assist me.

I've purchased two different kinds of venus flytraps from the same nursery. When they arrived they seemed to be in great condition. Shortly after putting them under my grow light, they started deteriorating quickly.

They start off healthy looking but always die before they fully open. I repotted them in a peat, perlite and sand mix. The soil has been rinsed and runoff tested with a TDS meter, results are under 10 TDS.

I noticed they have little red spots on them that none of my other flytraps have. I water with distilled water and they are getting about 12 hours a night of strong grow light. All my other venus flytraps under the same conditions are doing really well. I attached some photos of the flytraps that aren't doing well. They have been growing like this for months now. New ones pop up, but turn brown and die before the trap even opens.

Does anyone know what those red spots are and are they possibly the cause of whatever is wrong with these particular flytraps?

See attached photos. Please note that the UK sawtooth is there to show that I am growing a vft in the exact same substrate other growing conditions and its doing really well. The alien and moon trap are really struggling.

Thank you in advance!

My guess is that it's probably spider mites from the red dots, I use AVID and Tetrasan miticide from Flytrapstore.com to get rid of them. Just follow their instructions and your plants should recover in a month or so.

Oh wow, I didn't think they left those red dots. I actually have some miticide from flytrapstore. I'll mix some up and apply immediately. Thank you!

The red dots are red spider mites or their eggs. If you look closely some of them might be moving really, really, slowly. Miticides, especially AVID, are super toxic, so don’t apply indoors or near pets. You’ll have to spray any plants that were near those flytraps as well.

Isn’t it fungus on root or dead trap? Very similar to my vft.

As others have mentioned, spider mites for sure. What's interesting is that flytraps react very quickly to these pests, and a few of them are enough to make a plant look bad. Not long ago I had mites in some of my pots, sprayed everything thoroughly with miticide, but one application wasn't enough and a week later some survivors showed up. After a second spray it looks like the job is done. Here are some close-ups of the pests and their eggs.

lemon wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 3:12 pm As others have mentioned, spider mites for sure. What's interesting is that flytraps react very quickly to these pests, and a few of them are enough to make a plant look bad. Not long ago I had mites in some of my pots, sprayed everything thoroughly with miticide, but one application wasn't enough and a week later some survivors showed up. After a second spray it looks like the job is done. Here are some close-ups of the pests and their eggs.

Good Observation. Usually with an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) system, you do multiple treatments so many days apart. The goal is to knock down the pests you have now and then to target one of the life stages for the pest. Once that stage has been broken, the pest infestation collapses. You would also want to switch between pesticides with different modes of action to prevent resistance. However, I don't want to muddy the waters with the different pesticides for resistance. Keep doing what works.

I hope you get those mites under control. I hate those things.