Venus Fly Traps and Spider Mites

Carlstrom_Rick (Carlstrom_Rick%P-AME-HQ.CCBRIDGE.SEAA.mrouter@seaa.navsea.navy.mil)
14 Jun 96 12:14:00 EST



I have noticed that there have been a lot of new people added to
the list lately. Having had some very unsuccessful experiences with
VFT until the past two years I feel it's about time to mention the
dangers of red spider mites.

For years I had no success with VFT. They would grow poorly, turn
yellowish and die prematurely. Then one year three VFT's I was
growing about 3 feet from the rest did very well while the others were
barely alive. The only difference I noticed was that the poorly
growing plants had some small dots. These were very tiny, the size of
a pin point. I took a magnifying glass and to my surprise I could see
that they were very tiny spider mites. I treated the infected plants
and now all of my VFT are growing vigorously.

The point of this story is: every now and then inspect you plants
with a magnifying glass, especially ones in poor condition. It may
reveal something.

I still don't know how these very tiny insects could be so harmful
to the plant.


My .002
Rick