Yellow Jackets & Heating Pads
Carlstrom_Rick (Carlstrom_Rick%P-AME-HQ.CCBRIDGE.SEAA.mrouter@seaa.navsea.navy.mil)
23 Feb 96 12:21:00 EST
1. YELLOW JACKETS - As last summer progressed into the fall my S.
flava's most common prey switched from the yellow jacket wasp to some
type of "housefly". One of the most macabre aspects of this was that
many of the flies laid eggs on the dead wasps in the pitchers. The
hatching maggots then fed on the dead wasps and turned into flies that
were to stupid to escape the pitchers. This ecosystem in the pitchers
worked as sort of a "breeder reactor" creating its own food.
2. HEATING PADS - As far as heating a small greenhouse goes you might
want to look in an outdoor catalogue geared towards hunting. A lot of
these places sell heating pads for use in dog houses in the winter.
They are supposedly moisture proof and inexpensive. I have never used
one I just remember seeing them advertised in a mail order catalogue
for a company named "Gander Mountain" in the US.
Rick