Question

S. flava var. rubrico  

S. alata 'Night'   Hey guys!

I recently moved some of my Sarracenia to a sunnier spot in my yard to see if I could color them up a little more, but I ran into an unexpected problem. Bugs! Something(s) have been eating the pitchers of my plants. It's not species specific, as I've noticed holes in my S. flavas, S. leucophylla, and S. alata. Do you have any idea what it might be and how I can control it? It seems to either happen over night when I'm asleep or during the day when I'm at work.

For reference, I live in South Mississippi in S. alata country.

Thanks so much!

Connor

Answer
Hi Connor,

This is being done by a snail or slug.  Go out at night and take a look, and you'll probably catch your offender.  I can see the slime trails on the lower photo, and they will definitely cause this kind of damage.

First see if you can figure out where they are hiding, then use a low tox baiting such as beer traps or an iron phosphate bait such as Sluggo.  Getting the plants up off the ground will also help quite a bit.  If you're having a hard time getting them I've also had good luck with taking a small piece of plastic (like a pot tag) or wood and laying it across the top of the pots.  On that put a small amount of liquid bait such as Deadline.  Be sure if you do this, it's not where pets or other animals can get to it, but it does work well to catch a sneaky one that may be hiding among the plants.

One last note, on the top photo, try to see if you can watch on a day your not at work to see if any caterpillars might be present.  That damage looks a bit more like it might be insect.  Those you can usually just pull off manually then feed them to Venus Flytraps. :)

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com