FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just read a post on the ICPS forum that linked to a post on Terraforums that linked to a post on Orchidboard.com. This sounds like a cool idea and method for eliminating pests, including aphids. I'm wondering if anyone here has tried it before or even heard of it:
http://www.orchidboard.com/node/5
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showt ... p?t=120402

Basically you buy some dry ice and melt it in an enclosed area with the plant (like a terrarium or a plastic storage bin) and the resulting lack of oxygen kills most pests, though perhaps not mites. Sounds quite interesting and ingenious.

that stuff is really cool

Hmm, that seems like a pretty neat idea. Although photosynthesis from the plant is going to start making oxygen, it's probably not significant compared to that of the CO2. You have a lot of plants, let us know how it works out

Interesting

Well sounds interesting but we tried once in Poland placing some VFT's in an enclosed terrarium and raising the level of CO2 inside for better growth, the plants lost all it's leaves and were doing bad

Matt wrote:I just read a post on the ICPS forum that linked to a post on Terraforums that linked to a post on Orchidboard.com. This sounds like a cool idea and method for eliminating pests, including aphids. I'm wondering if anyone here has tried it before or even heard of it:
Basically you buy some dry ice and melt it in an enclosed area with the plant (like a terrarium or a plastic storage bin) and the resulting lack of oxygen kills most pests, though perhaps not mites. Sounds quite interesting and ingenious.

You know-- We've been using dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) for years now to kill any insects that may be in rice and dry beans when we place them in containers for long-term storage. It works great in enclosed areas.

I have never thought about using the same process for pests on plants and in growing media. It's a great idea for experimentation. A person could place a chunk of dry ice on a plastic cup lid or something, place that on top of the growing medium but away from the leaves of the plant(s), then enclose it all in a plastic bag for a while. I wonder how long it would take to kill the insects, and I wonder if this would work on spider mites.

Very interesting idea. Thanks for mentioning it, Matt.

Theoretically it would work on anything that needs undergoes aerobic cellular respiration, it would just be a matter of time. I guess I don't know that much about spider mites, but if they need to breath oxygen to live it will get them eventually...I guess this also assumes that the oxygen the plant produces isn't in great enough concentrations to support the mites.

hmmm...sounds very interesting. Anyone wanna guinea pig this one? If nobody else does i suppose i could sacrifice a plant or two in the name of scientific advancement, lol.

afh928 wrote:scientific advancement, lol.

Wow..that is very....Scientific!! :p

The next time I notice an outbreak of mites or aphids (I've actually never had aphids before and I'd rather not), I might give this a try assuming that it's not one of my more valuable plants that has the infestation.

man if my capes still had Aphids I would have tried this

Lawndude84 wrote:man if my capes still had Aphids I would have tried this

Hah, yes, the D. capensis would be a prime candidate for this experiment.

If mine get any sort of infestation I'll be happy to try it out, but we're going to hope I don't have to try it *crosses fingers*

95slvrZ28 wrote:If mine get any sort of infestation I'll be happy to try it out, but we're going to hope I don't have to try it *crosses fingers*

Yes, hopefully you won't have to try it, but watch out for mites in Boulder. They love that dry summer air.