FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Grey, thanks for the update !! and welcome back . I have some ping questions i gotta ask you

Thank you! And go for it.

I'll see about getting photos sorted today or tomorrow, I have a free weekend so it might be tomorrow. Hmmm.

Edit: here are the links to the newest posts...
2015-02-27 || 2015-03-04 || 2015-03-27 & 2014-04-12 || 2015-04-18

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It's times like these ("these" being when I don't upload photos for three months) when I am glad that I resize everything, hopefully that'll offset any loading slowness one might experience... as I have over forty photos to upload; here are some from 27th Feb. Please be aware that 99% of these are cockroach photos, so please refrain from clicking on the links if you have a phobia of them.

Cockroach tank clean out day. Always fun. Balancing cork bark, a tub of muck and three wriggly cockroaches that want to get away from every hint of sunlight is a challenge... but hilarious. I love these guys, they have such character.

Gloria isn't a very nimble Madagascar hissing cockroach; she can climb on glass (a skill that Nineveh simply lacks), but tends to fall off things with a curious degree of efficacy; offers to help usually go ignored, so I have to do it the hard way and encourage her onto a piece of cork bark instead. Nineveh, on the other hand, makes life easy and just sits and lets me get on with it. He's a pretty chilled out dude... most of the time, until he realises that there's a world beyond the glass. Awwwh. But don't get me started about Tarshish, he just makes things more difficult. I sat the cockroaches in a second enclosure temporarily while I cleaned the big one out, and, of course, Tarshish found the tiniest space ever to get himself lodged in. Derp. I shouldn't hold it against him, he is a cockroach, after all, and they are good at wedging into tiny spaces.

Meanwhile, Misi couldn't care less about the shenanigans.


In the end, everything turned out absolutely fine. Martial bliss was restored, and that's all that matters, right?! Gloria & Nineveh are the epitome of cockroachy love - wherever one is, there the other shall shortly be! D'awwwwhhh.

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Got a fair few Mexican Pinguicula photos here. To be quite honest, I moved a couple of the Pings around just before these photos were taken and can't remember what I put where, so the tags on these might not be entirely accurate. Whhooooops! Here are photos from 4th March.

First, random cat photos! Because I must. The abundance of pink in Skatty's photos is a bit... mesmerizing.



Right. I moved my old plant windowsill shelf back into my bedroom so I could bring my orchids back as well, which was pretty exciting. It also means I have space for growing strawberries.


I'm quite happy as this is the first year I've had Pinguicula 'Tina' go into their succulent stage fully and completely. I'm eager to see if there are any changes throughout the year in their growth habits.

I've got a few P. 'Tina' divisions and strikes that are gradually getting bigger.



I think these are Pinguicula jaumavensis... emphasis on think.



Just as I think this is a P. 'Jannes'...

And a P. rotundifolia...

Aaaaand a division that I know is a P. 'Weser'...


If nothing else, I know that they are all Mexican Pinguicula!


Have a random photo of the cockroach enclosure, which I redecorated! Yay!

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Here are a couple of cockroach related photos from 27 March; I have to say I feel that Gloria & Nineveh make a gorgeous couple; their enclosure seems to be working better for them, too.

Well, that was a painful update. Onto the 12 Apr!

I moved all of the Mexican Pinguicula to the smaller piece of tufa that I had as it absorbed water better than the larger one; this is great, but the one drawback is that I no longer know what is what! I have a hunch, but will wait to see if the plants flower for me so I can be sure. I'm hopeful that this will be good change in the long run.


Just before I moved things, I apparently took a photo of Beatrice (a P. 'Weser' that I've had for pretty much five years now). She's doing well.


I had to evacuate a P. 'Tina from the tufa I used as it wouldn't all fit, so it's sat with my divisions and leaf pullings.



My boyfriend bought me a "Grow Your Own Peppers" kit, which was very sweet. I've got some healthy looking sprouts!


And now you get to learn something new about me: I play the harp! I'm a novice and have only been playing since January, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I decoupaged my baby harp, which has twelve strings, I also have a larger, twenty-seven string harp.


Not the best decoupage job ever done, but it was my first project so naturally I chose the hardest shape and material to decoupage onto... oh well. I did m'best, and I didn't break anything, yay! As a reference, here's a photo of both my harps prior to the decoupaging...

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I have some Madagascar hissing cockroach photos for you all today, I'll do the usual thing and link to them.

Gloria is looking increasingly large, I have made the assumption that she is pregnant but I honestly do not know for certain; I'm fairly sure I'll find out in a couple of weeks time, as if she is pregnant, I'll be up 30 cockroaches or so. I'm actually away on the first bank holiday of May (going to Wales to meet my other half's family, which is intensely exciting!) and have a feeling inside that Gloria may give birth on that weekend, so I'll have to make some preparations just to be safe. Have some couple photos of Gloria & Nineveh: (1) (2) (3) (4)

And guess who moulted today! I was quite concerned about Tarshish as I'd not seen him for a while; upon checking the enclosure I spotted what looked like a deflated, very dead cockroach, but then spotted the split down its back - then I discovered this whiteish grey blob! Yup, this is Tarshish; as his new exoskeleton hardens, he'll turn darker and darker until he's like his old self (but a wee bit bigger). Aww!

Welcome back again Grey. i enjoy the photos of your pets and plants haha. Your BF is the best!

Sent from my SM-N9005

Many thanks tish! How are you? Hehe.

Gloria gave birth on Monday. Whaaaa - I now have around 24 DRDs (collective term I'm using for the baby cockroaches; if you get the reference you get a virtual cookie). They're incredibly cute, I've got a couple of photos that I'll upload ASAP.

I've got to say, those cockroaches look amazing!
Your pings are looking really nice too, glad to see all is growing, and going, well

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Hey Daniel, great to see you! How're you? How've you been? The cockroaches are seriously cool, they're fascinating to observe.

Got a couple of photos of Tarshish, who is my smallest big cockroach (make sense? ) with the babies.

(1) || (2) || (3)

The photos were taken on 22nd April; it would seem the date set on the camera is a little off, so the photos I recently posted might not be entirely accurate date-wise... oh well. I cleaned the cockroach tanks as best as I could on Wednesday and got the bachelor pad for Nineveh and Tarshish furnished properly. Tarshish is still living with Gloria at the moment because he refuses to move, but he's too young to breed anyway for the time being.

Misi was "helping" by conquering the camera bag strap.

AHA! Take that you camera bag strap!!!

Hi Grey!!! So you are a fellow string-plucker, eh? I play guitar! I saw an episode of "I Love Lucy" with Harpo Marx where he played a harp! It was awesome! How have you been?

Your pings are looking great. I've been away for a LONG time, how did your strawberries turn out? And your sundews?

Also, I planted an unknown ping I received in peat/perlite/pumice/cleaned and rinsed beach sand, it's doing great; just waking up. I planted a division from my P. gigantea in peat/perlite/pumice with the addition of a bit of powdered lime(we'll see how it goes). I'll post pics when I have some free time(a luxury I seldom enjoy, as of late).

Can you show us all your plants?

Hi ironjaws - welcome back! Glad to see you return. How are you doing? Guitars are fantastic, not something I could learn to play myself I don't think, but immensely versatile things. Do you play acoustic or electric? And I've been all right, thank you, been learning to adjust various new responsibilities and shtuff so I've been a bit of a wreck on and off. The strawberries were a bit hit and miss, but I must try again this year (I have no say in the matter ), my sundews unfortunately got a massive case of aphids and were decimated.

Sounds very cool! Powdered lime has been said to be quite useful with Mexican Pings, so I wish you the utmost success with it!

Hey rayneger, I'll see about getting some photos of the other plants soon. I'm away this weekend so I'll have to see how I recover from that.

Grey wrote:
Hey Daniel, great to see you! How're you? How've you been? The cockroaches are seriously cool, they're fascinating to observe.

Hello there
Well at this very moment in time I'm not great, but I've been keeping well, been very busy really! How about yourself?

Loving the new photos too. Those babies are just too cute

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I'm glad you've been keeping well generally, Daniel, that's really good to read. I've been a bit busier than I used to be, so been up and down but keeping my eyes fixed on Christ and loving life!

I had my first weekend away in over a decade this bank holiday, went down to Southern Wales with my boyfriend to meet and spend time with his family. We took my wheelchair (named Barry) and on the Monday went for a walk around a huge country park; I took mum's camera with me so we took a few photos. (A "few" being at least 50.)

Here are some favourites, resized as I think it'd break the page if I did the full sized photos.





Such a stunning place - tons of wildlife and so much to take in. The entire weekend was absolutely incredible, one of the best experiences of my life, and I can't wait to go back!