All posts tagged flies

Sticky

The reason that I first acquired my carnivorous plants was to keep the flies under control in the limery – a natural solution that is also fascinating. The pitcher plants, which featured in last week’s Three Things Thursday are good for controlling large flies, but when it comes to fruit flies and little black compost flies, you need a sundew or two.

The most common and easiest to grow in a UK conservatory is probably the Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis). The plants have linear leaves and either pink or white flowers, the former associated with leaves with red highlights. Mine are always covered in little flies:

And then, if you’ve got some hanging space that’s high enough so you won’t walk into it (and honestly, you really don’t want a face full of this), there’s my favourite – Drosera dicotoma, the leaves of which can reach 30cm. Mine had a bit of a set-back earlier in the year when I was on holiday, but has now grown some new fresh leaves which haven’t had much time to catch many flies, although it is capable of snaring big ones.

Huge, trailing leaves

So, who needs chemicals or fly paper, when nature can solve the problem for you?

19 Comments

by The Snail of Happiness on June 12, 2017 • Permalink

Posted in gardening and growing

Tagged carnivorous plants, Drosera, flies, fly paper, insects, limery, sundew

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on June 12, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/06/12/sticky/

Sowing and growing

Life is flourishing in the limery. Seeds that were sown a few weeks ago are developing nicely into young plants – lettuces, tomatoes, sweet peppers and melons:

I sowed more seeds over the past few days, including the first ones outside. The latter is a pea variety called “Carouby de Maussane”, a mange tout with red flowers that is going to grow up the pea obelisk that Mr Snail created (I think most people use them for sweet peas, but I prefer to grow edibles). A few days of sunshine has given me the chance to weed one of the raised beds and that’s where the peas are.

only planted yesterday, so no germination yet

Unfortunately one of the things that is flourishing in the limery is the cluster-fly population. I really don’t want to use chemical pesticides, but the flies have arrived before the carnivorous plants are doing their stuff. However, the recent sunshine has encouraged pitcher growth and so I’m hoping that soon the Sarracenias will be munching their way through the flies. I grew some from seed last year, so I’m especially pleased to see one of the youngsters producing a vigorous pitcher already. The sundews are also showing signs of growth; in particular the Drosera dicotoma looks like it’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in the very near future (I think of it as living fly-paper). The Venus fly traps are growing too, but never really earn their keep apart from providing interest!

Amongst my favourite seeds to plant are the squashes, but I’m hanging on for a few more days so they don’t get too big before it’s warm enough to plant them out. And then there’s beans and borage and all sorts of herbs…

16 Comments

by The Snail of Happiness on March 28, 2017 • Permalink

Posted in gardening and growing

Tagged carnivores, flies, lettuce, limery, seeds, sowing, tomatoes

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on March 28, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/03/28/sowing-and-growing/

Indigestion

You know that feeling… there was so much delicious food, and you just couldn’t help yourself… well, you are not alone.

In the limery, sunshine entices the flies in and then they can’t get out. This mass influx gets seduced by the pitcher plants and doesn’t last long. However, I noticed yesterday that the three largest pitchers of the Sarracenia leucophylla (which I’ve only had a couple of months) were looking rather sickly:

On further investigation I discovered that they may have over-indulged as the slender pitchers are full nearly to the top:

Fortunately, new young pitchers are growing to replace these, but I think the moral of the story is ‘over-eating can be fatal’!

new growth

18 Comments

by The Snail of Happiness on August 23, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in gardening and growing

Tagged carnivore, flies, insectivore, limery, Sarracenia leucophylla

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on August 23, 2016

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2016/08/23/indigestion/

Hanging around

Not an appealing sight

In order to control flies in the limery I have been using a combination of carnivorous plants and fly paper. The latter is unsightly, but effective to hang high up. However, now I’m getting to know my insectivores better and discovering what grows well, I have been able to ditch the fly paper in favour of Drosera dichotoma. This astonishing sundew (at least astonishing to those of us used to our tiny native Drosera rotundifolia) produces long trailing leaves, and so is best in a location where these can drape down the side of the pot, unrestricted. Suspending this plant shows it off to its best advantage and gives it the greatest opportunity to trap its prey.

Since the plant needs to sit in water, a reasonably deep suspended dish is required. After a bit of rummaging around, I located a plastic bowl that had been given to me years ago full of pot pourri (pointless stuff, long since composted). A little bit of work with some jute twine and a crochet hook and I had constructed a hammock for my pot.