RE: Insect Feast redeux
Oliver T Massey CFS (massey@hal.fmhi.usf.edu)
Mon, 29 Jul 1996 11:50:51 -0400 (EDT)
>
> > It is a said thing to see my nicely formed pitchers
> > not able to hold any water because of a huge hole in
> > the center! The insect responsible didnt even take
> > the time to finish one off. Instead he/she
> > (politically correct bugs) decided to make a big
> > hole in every single pitcher.
>
> I've holes chewed in multiple pitchers here in the North Carolina piedmont
> and my Mom has reported the same thing happening to her S. flava in the NC
> mountains. I don't think it is slugs doing it to my plants. For one thing,
> I don't see any slug slime trails left behind. Secondly, I've seen the tops
> of several pitchers chewed off. I don't think a slug would travel all the
> way to the top of the pitcher for a meal and I also doubt these wimpy
> pitchers (on my S. minor) could support the weight of anything very big.
> The damage I see is more consistent with Japanese beetles. I haven't been
> able to catch the perpetrator even though I've checked both during the day
> and at night. In your case it could be an insect that the plant trapped
> eating its way out. Let me know if you find out!
Around here I tend to have problems with several different caterpillars.
They do not do enough damage to kill plants, but do a good job of taking
large oddly shaped bites out of new growth and tender pitchers. With
small Sarrs. they will eat the whole pitcher from the stem up. They
apparently work at night or early morning. I usually catch them by
depotting the plant and carefully looking through all the sphagnum near
the crown. The worst damage is the occassional case where they begin
eating the center out of the growth crown. The few times it has
happened the plant did recover, although the guilty caterpillar did not!
- righteous vengeance and all that.
Tom