God's Natural Bug Control

[Sgt. Silverman]

After reading George's post on the spiders, I wanted to send along "God's natural answer to bug control"

Picture 1 is my Carnivorous Plant Bog Garden I built. The mini-bog has 7 different types of carnivorous plants from around the world.

Picture 2 is "dionaea muscipula - Dente" (better known as the Venus Flytrap) to the left and to the right is "Byblis Liniflora". (Norm, you'll like this one, it's a Rainbow Plant from Australia.) I grew these from seed four weeks ago and are the 3rd generation from an original plant I grew 4 years ago.

The types of bugs the VFT eat are; flies, SPIDERS, ants, and an occasional lady bug. (unfortunately) The Rainbow Plants diet consists of; ants, gnats, mosquito's, and any hapless flying insects.


Picture 3are two types of sundews: The "Cape Sundew" is the smaller sundew and the longer one is a "Forked Sundew".

Sundews love all types of gnats and ants.

Picture 4 is "Sarracenia Purperea x Oreophilia" which is a hybrid North Amercian pitcher plant. (The longer stalked carnivorous plant in the bog picture is a Sarracenia Flava)

The diet for the Purperea is; YELLOW JACKETS and the Flava's diet are; yellow jackets, hornets and smaller flying insects.

So, if you loathe insects as much as I do, this is great hobby to get into and you get to see God's creations at work without any harmful chemicals. (And the kids will love them too!) God Bless and thanks for reading. Greg

 

[SeniorSeeker]

Fantastic, Greg! I'm guessing that these can be grown indoors as well, as long as they get plenty of sun light? Now if we could only come up with a plant that eats second-hand smoke! We could make a lot of people really happy.

 

[Sgt. Silverman]

Your are correct Martin. Most carnivorous plants can be grown indoors and the key aspects to making them happy and living long are; the correct medium (soil type), plenty of sunlight, humidity (if the plant grows in a humid environment) and lastly DISTILLED or RAIN water. Tap, and bottled water will kill them. You can feed them live insects indoors, but it isn't necessary. (Feeding VFT's hamburger is a myth and will kill them over time).

The bog you see there I put together last spring and it sat outdoors all winter and completely froze over. As you can tell, it hasn't harmed them a bit! As for the second hand smoke, maybe someday Martin. God Bless my friend and I hope you're feeling better.

 

[SeniorSeeker]

"Tap, and bottled water will kill them"
This is an interesting statement, in that most city water isn't fit to dink. In the summer months, the added chlorine is not only distasteful but very unhealthy as well. There have been numerous studies done around the country and, for the most part, the same conclusions have been reached; city water is harmful to your health especially in the summer months.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-a-Carbon-Water-Filter-to-Avoid-Harmful-City-Water-Chemicals&id=4133350