Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 07:19:14 -0500 From: "Susan Farrington" <sfarrington@ridgway.mobot.org> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2218$foo@default> Subject: Feeding Sarracenia
Dick,
Your cp's will NOT eat those mosquitoes that are going to hatch out
of your trays: mosquitoes are attracted to blood and carbon dioxide,
not to the sweet nectar that lures insects to cp's. So get rid of those
larvae! (You could put Utricularia gibba in those trays: it WILL eat
tiny mosquito larvae. Or you can dry out the trays every few days to
get rid of them. Or you can put Bacillus thurgiensis (mosquito dunks)
in the water to kill the larvae.)
As to feeding your cp's... they CAN live without insects, but they
won't thrive and reproduce well unless they get at least some food
each summer. An easy way to feed them is to purchase dried flies
meant for feeding reptiles... I add water to hydrate them, then give
some to the pitchers and VFT's.
Susan
> I probably missed the replies to my enquiry the other week.
> Is it essential to feed Sars with insects or can thay manage in a
> greenhouse environment as mine have been for a year ?? I use rain
> water in trays & notice mosquito larvae & presume these would get
> consumed when hatched. I have a VFT & have never fed it in the four
> years it has lived with the sars in trays of water. Out of interest
> they perfectly happy in the company of several hundred cacti. Are
> there any other CPs which would be happy with the foregoing??
> Comments would be appreciated
>
> Dick in Berkshire U.K.
>
Susan Farrington
Missouri Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 299
St. Louis MO 63166-0299
susan.farrington@mobot.org
(314)577-9402
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