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Dead insect stuck in trap!

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:25 pm
by PhAlLeN
Hi there. Hope you can help. I purchased 3 beautiful healthy vft's two days ago,however they slow cooked in the heat of the car while i visited family and they were in full sun,it was for only two hours so i did not imagine damage would be done, but by the time i got home their traps were all closed and they were brown and clearly burned. So i cut all their leaves off and will have to see if they will survive. So anyhow yesterday i purchased another Vft. When i bought him, one trap had an insect inside but the trap was open, the novice i am, i tried removing it with tweesers and yup the trap closed. Today the trap re opened. I thought perhaps the insect would naturally fall out because there was a nice breeze outside,but no deal. So this evening i tried to remove the insect again, and yet again the trap shut. Now i know that shutting traps too often for no reason uses alot of energy, and the trap dies off, does the energy wasted, shorten the life span of the whole plant or just the actual trap? Also how do i rid this trap of the insect carcass? The dead insect does'nt even look like a empty shell, it is still in perfect form, in my opinion! Does that mean my Vft did not digest it to begin with? And finally... The reason i've been so hell bent on removing the dead insect is because the trap it's in has got a little black spot on each side of its trap and i read that that could be caused by bacteria etc that came off the insect, so can any one suggest what i should do? Must i leave it well alone and hope the insect falls off, do i attempt yet again to remove it myself thus draining even more energy from my plant? And if so, how? And what about the black spots on the trap? Should i just cut the trap off insect inside and all, even tho the rest of the trap is green and healthy? Many questions i know but i dont want to lose yet another Vft before i even get a chance to enjoy it! Will appreciate any tips suggestions etc. Thanks...

Re: Dead insect stuck in trap!

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:27 am
by swat007j
Try blowing on it lol or pour water slowly to wash it off i know it can be hard....

Re: Dead insect stuck in trap!

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 5:11 pm
by -Darrell-
Try an adjustable spray bottle with distilled water in it. The spray can be adjusted to be more of a jet, too. Or maybe try a toy water gun.

Re: Dead insect stuck in trap!

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 8:19 pm
by 95slvrZ28
If I were in your position I wouldn't worry about the insect in the trap. If you cut off the entire trap, you're guaranteed to lose the entire trap. If the trap turns black and dies off naturally, you're in no worse position than if you cut it off and the plant got more use out of it. I just leave the dead insect remains inside the traps on my plants. I look at it this way: nobody is out in the fields in Carolina walking around picking dead bugs out of the VFTs there, so why should I worry about it?

Re: Dead insect stuck in trap!

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 12:32 am
by tommyr
LEAVE IT ALONE. They do not need to be babied.