Food!!!!!
saharris@iafrica.com
Mon, 15 Jul 96 05:51:29 GMT
Hi!,
I find snails to be an ideal food source for Nepenthes, collected
by the hundreds from neighbours gardens, they are frozen for a lengthy
period, and thawed out prior to feeding (I am not prepared to have them
waltzing around eating everything in sight), and have found them quite
capable of slithering out of pitchers if alive, with Heliamphoras I
surgically remove the head, waiting for the head to appear can
sometimes be a lengthy process, no freezing, the bacteria is
required!!, and pop them into the pitchers. During the warmer months,
hundreds of fruit beetles pupate, prefering the paler coloured flowers,
and roses, later attacking the ripening fruit, they are approximately
2 x 1.5cm in size, and are also an ideal food source, as they also
have an outer skeleton/shell, which when decomposing, does not come
into direct contact with the walls of the pitcher, which I find tend to
rot rapidly if this occurs. Slugs 2cm and under are fed to my VFTs,
larger are either cut up, or trampled underfoot. Sarracenias fend for
themselves, catching ample flies and moths during the growing period.
ALL THE BEST Eric Green