Re: RE: Insect Feast
dave evans (T442119@RUTADMIN.RUTGERS.EDU)
Mon, 29 Jul 96 18:11 EDT
> From: "Phil Semanchuk" <semanchuk~pj@GLAXO.COM>
>
> > 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.
>
> 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!
Wasps can chew their way out of pitchers on just about any species
of Sarr but I never see them in S.purpurea or S.psittacina (then
again S. psitt doesn't catch much of anything). S.minor does get
chewed on by a lot of bugs. I don't why, but I suspect S. minor is
softer than the other plants. Perhaps this is a reason for them
being floppy, they just don't harden up like the others?
Yes, slugs do eat the tops off of pitchers. I've caught them in the
act. The pitches were hanging down off to the side from the weight
of the slug but not so far as to cause a permant lean.
Dave Evans