FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

My flytraps have been grown outside for about a month and a half now. It took them a couple weeks to regain growth but they seemed to perk up pretty quickly. Everything was going fine until about a week or more ago when I noticed traps dying prematurely or developing without teeth and/or brown edges. Upon further checking of the rest of my plants, I started noticing brown spots along the curved edges of some traps and some holes even which suggests pests to me but I suppose it could be fungus.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N07/6033282124/
Trap browning before full growth and not opening.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N07/6033282744/
Browning edge

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N07/6033285368/
Brown spots

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N07/6032730043/
Those are actually holes that go through, multiple traps on multiple plants have these.

Any help with a diagnosis is appreciated

at a quick look i think you might have some kind of bug or mite attacking those photos aren't great for saying more you have put the background in focus not the subject sorry

Do you know anyone with a microscope ?

Also you know about correct soil water and sunlight if you have these covered i would then check for fungus or mites etc

Personally i would have to say that you have microscopic bugs the second photo points to this but i might be wrong ?

remember there are lots of bugs and mites that you cannot see with the naked eye

I won't have access to a microscope for another 2 weeks... and I wouldn't know what to look for anyway... I might be able to ask some of the botanists or biology profs and see if they could spot anything?

I know the camera work is poor, my blackberry is all I have sadly. I will try and track a better one down. I was just hoping some others would have experienced similar damage.

I am pretty sure the water, soil and sun requirements are met.

All of the photos are out of focus, so it's hard to see much. I don't think it's a pest problem. Looks like it could be fungal or perhaps heat related (the plant got too hot).

Dam, I really thought I had picked the best ones. I must have taken near 50. Please check back tomorrow Matt and Snaps and I will have some better pictures for you.

Slowbomb you have a post about the same thing happening to your Neps right ?

I would go with Matts advised then i read your Neps post that you recently moved

Looking at photo 2 again the highest points are effected

Alright, here are the pictures, I had to take them again my blackberry but was finally able to get a more stable background so the picture would focus on the foreground.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
Frayed edges and no teeth on both of these traps (the undeveloped one and the bigger one)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
The start of a hole in the leaf, grey/brown in color.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
Dead, undeveloped trap

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
Brown, underdeveloped trap

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
Brown spots along the border of the trap.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
The best example of the holes running along the borders of the traps.

I hope these pictures help more than my last ones! Honestly, the plants were doing seemingly fine about 2 weeks ago. I put them outside in mid June and they did have an adjustment period but then started producing larger and more healthy looking leaves and traps. Then bam, I start noticing these spots, holes and under developed leaves. The one I am most worried about is the B52 who doesn't seem to be producing any new traps at the moment.

can you tell me where you keep the plants ?

how much sunlight do they receive ?
how do you water ? what type of water ?

what soil mix do you use ?

am asking you these just to rule out normal problems

Firstly i wouldn't rule out either a fungus attack because of the tiny holes also some mites and bugs are microscopic as for both of these you might never see the attacker only the damage they do.

Can you take a full plant photo for me as-well ?

This is where a microscope come in handy lol am thinking about getting one

I keep the plants on a sunny corner of my 3rd story porch. It gets east and south Sun from sunrise to 3pm. I leave them in trays of water and fill whenever the waterline is near empty. On hot days I top water as the soil dries. I use purified RO water that I fill from various locations. The soil mix was premixed from reputable sources minus one which is just long fibered sphagnum and a bit of bark. Our temperatures are usually much hotter in the summers but highs in the 80's right now, lows in the 50s.

Matts idea of overheating does strike me as interesting though. I keep plastic wrap over the trays and the pots sit in holes through the plastic. This is to avoid excess evaporation and waste of the water. I have been doing this since I put them outside but perhaps when it got really hot last week (upper 90s) the plastic trapped in extra heat and could have damaged them?

I too am thinking fungus or something very tiny too because while plants in all trays and pots have damage, the B52 is the one that looks awful and could be the problem. I can get the full picture up later this evening. On my way out right now to work.

Like I said, I won't have access to a microscope for a couple weeks but wouldn't know what to look for even when I get it.

one other thing is remember the mid day sun is always the hottest now if you have plastic bags on this might become a problem just a thought

If you did look through a microscope at a leaf and something was there i think you would know

Slowbomb, they are all your photos ? If so, and if you kept the nephentes with the flytraps, it could be the sun to be blamed. But i'm not sure and if other plants besides these, are around these and show no wrong signs (the insects or such will have to spread to the whole plants, if insect where to be blamed), then maybe other reason could be.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N07/

They were all together before I moved mid/late June, the neps and the flytraps. That flickr account has old and new issues mixed together. Pretty much the day I moved is the day I moved the flytraps and 3 nepenthes outside and kept the others indoors. After a sunburn, I moved the Singalana inside again and that was only after 2 weeks outside in the sun (I didn't acclimate it and shade it right).

I don't think the problems are related between my neps and my flytraps unless something happened right before the move.

Here are some full plant pictures for you Snaps

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N07/6036715683/
You can see the trap with the two holes in it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
Group of 4 pots together

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
Typical on the left, B52 on the right

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61261319@N ... otostream/
B52 whole plant picture

Slowbomb wrote:B52 whole plant picture

The new trap coming up looks like a trichterfalle trap!