FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Every time it rains i have leaves that look to be cut clean off. Almost as if someone took scissors to them. Has anyone else experienced this?

Nope, and my VFTs are bombarded by rains October-May. My guess is that some pest is emerging during the rain and eating the "stems".

It the strangest thing, makes no sense.

One of my B52's had ONE new growth coming up and the unformed trap was cut clean off. I'm pretty upset about it.

Yeah gotta be a pest or something

Yeah but what would come out only when it rains, bite leafs clean off and then just leave them. They aren't being eaten or taken.

I had a caterpiller that was eating my traps off my akai rhu. it had a partner that was eating the traps off my typicals. I'm not sure but big crickets/locusts eat green plant matter. its something that comes up when its wet.

will a slug eat the traps?

They aren't being eaten though.

I agree with it definitely not being done by the rain and my traps see some serious weather. Do you trim off your dead leaves with sissors? If so it could be that you are accidentally nicking some of the other trap stems and after a good rain it knocks them the rest of the way off the plant. I saw a similar post once and the person was having the same kind of problem and posted a photo. Once we looked closely it was obvious that he had nicked the healthy traps during routine manicuring and didn't realize it. He was a new grower but I've also nicked healthy stems when cutting away dead growth on occasion.

Nope no trimming

Insect. Rain won't do that. No way. It's a bug or small animal.

Must be an insect then.

I cant think of an insect that can bite leafs/traps off perfectly clean like scissors and then leave what they bit off. Nothing is being taken or eaten.

This recently just happened with one of my Purpurea pitchers, it turned out to be some kind of ant, probably carpenter. I know this because some daddy long legs or harvestmen (whatever you call them) have claimed the sphagnum raft I grow my Purpurea on as theirs, not a problem as they eat small insects that usually eat plant matter.
I saw one eating an ant that tried to steal a piece of bee from a pitcher that seemed to have been recently cut. I looked them up and carpenter ants have strong jaws, and at night forage for dead insects, which im sure your vft probably has on/in it. This makes them a great candidate for what did this.

Rammplins wrote:This recently just happened with one of my Purpurea pitchers, it turned out to be some kind of ant, probably carpenter. I know this because some daddy long legs or harvestmen (whatever you call them) have claimed the sphagnum raft I grow my Purpurea on as theirs, not a problem as they eat small insects that usually eat plant matter.
I saw one eating an ant that tried to steal a piece of bee from a pitcher that seemed to have been recently cut. I looked them up and carpenter ants have strong jaws, and at night forage for dead insects, which im sure your vft probably has on/in it. This makes them a great candidate for what did this.

If it is ants he can spread some food grade Diatomaceous Earth around the ground near the pots/trays.

Not carpenter ants, I have an extreme background with those. I know them very well.

My traps have no insects in them anyways so no ant species in my area would have any interest in the traps.

I had some tall seedlings growing on the deck and when the wind blew and made them sway, my dog would go over and nip at the shoots, nipping a few clean off like scizzors.