FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

This picture is from last Friday. By today they have eaten holes in every pitcher. Any ideas on what I could do to stop it? Or will I they survive and grow new growth if I just let them get eaten. Whatever is doing it is taking large chunks out mid pitcher. These are In DFW, Tx growing outdoors

could be a slug, they're the larges thing that comes to mind that would make sense. the bites are quite smooth so it couldn't be a small animal. catipillars are a posibility but there would be muntiply holes. here's a website that might work for your problem, though i wouldn't use coffee grounds or egg shells since that's fertilizer
edit: forgot link, here: https://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/ ... rally.html

I’m going to try the beer trap method because I have 3 cans of beer I am not drinking in the fridge. Hopefully it will catch some slugs and save what’s left of my pitchers!

My late grandmother swore by the beer method for her veggie plants. It might be safer than slug repellant granules.

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Ok I made a trap!!!! Will add beer and ttry it out tonight!!

Panman wrote:Nice trap, but that is overkill for slugs. All they need is a shallow dish of beer. They crawl into it and drown. Of course, your trap would prevent the neighborhood alcoholic dog from drinking your beer.

haha okay i will do the dish method as well, in case the dog wants a sip

Okay. No slugs in my beer traps, just 5 doodle bugs and 6 gnats. I moved my pitcher plants up on a table on the back porch, maybe whatever is eating them
Won’t find them there. Someone suggested mason bees making homes for their larvae. Hmm. I have seen a baby possum as well. Thanks everyone for your thoughts

Sat outside waiting to see if I saw any slugs around My plants and I heard something in the bush behind me and a baby opossum crawled out from under the porch.... Assuming that is what ate these holes in my plants , I wonder why it Only went for the purple pitchers.... well they are put away on a table in the back yard area, hopefully it decides to mind it’s own biz

If the pitchers are torn like that, it could be birds trying to get to the bugs trapped inside. I’ve seen damage like this in my upright-growing Sarracenia, and even caught a bird in the act once!

Based on everything you have said, the pics you've posted, and looking back at Dallas area weather over the last two weeks, it's the young possum looking for water.
To me, the holes look ragged, chewed through. There is some crushing damage in a couple of spots, and the holes start where the liquid level is. In one pic you can see the liquid in a pitcher, so you know they're full. Last, the weather in the Dallas area has been up into the 90's with no precipitation, so the pitchers are the water source for the critter. It couldn't get at the water from the top, so it made it more accessible.
If you want to prevent any more damage and save your plant, either find a way to protect it, or get rid of the possum.
Good luck.

dean, i think it is the possum too. i dont neccesaarily want it gone for good i just want it away from my specific garden area. so tonight i will be trying this concoction based on panman suggestion.
"Hot peppers or hot sauce -- the hotter the better -- mixed with a little water and dish soap and applied to plants the possum finds tasty also repels the possum. Hot mustard mixed with a little water and dish soap works as well." i am going to appply a home-made a hot and nasty border ...

I want to mention you can also help out by leaving some water out in a flat dish for wildlife. This works for tomatoes when you have the problems of squirrels or woodchucks taking 1-2 bites out of multiple tomatoes -- they are just thirsty. Make water more easily accessible and everyone is happy