Re: VFT Problem

Ken (ken@casadyg.com)
Fri, 1 Nov 1996 19:25:26 -0500 (EST)

> Hi folks- I have a question for you: I'm in Jacksonville, FL, and I fed =
a <
> big juicy spider to one of my VFT pods. Well, the thing has been =
holding <
> onto it for the past week or so, and this morning when I get back from a =
<
> long weekend away, I find that the pod with the spider in it has turned =
a <
> bruised black color (very sad), and the little pos next to it that was =
just <
> barely toching that big spider one was staring to yellow where it was <
> touching the other pod. What's the deal? Was it poison in the spider =
that <
> is killing the pod? <

Jason,

Awhile back I was having my house painted. While I was at work, the =
painters, fascinated by my VFTs, found a HUGE Black Widow Spider and fed =
it to one of the traps (the spider was the size of a "shooter" marble) - =
how they got it to the plant, still alive, I didn't want to know! When I =
came home I was "horrified" to see the trap wiggling -- the legs of the hug=
e spider were sticking out and still struggling. This went on for 3 days (=
serious!). After almost 2 weeks, the trap started to turn black and had to =
be removed (it took a bit of courage on my part to do so!). I have seen =
the same thing happen with large cockroaches or even large slugs. I think =
it is the size of the "bug." Too big and the trap gets "indigestion" and =
will die off. It is really important to remove this type of dead trap as =
quickly as possible as it seem to be much more prone to attract a fungus (=
due, I suppose, to the still present "meat").

Good Growing!
Ken Cusson
Ken Cusson (ccskenc@redshift.com or ken@casadyg.com)