Help! Pests on my seedlings!

[orchidsarefun]

as for fungus gnats - the best solution to that problem are butterworts/pinguicula. Even though I have a rigid spraying regime, I still find a couple trapped in my butterworts' leaves.
Butterworts are also fascinating in that they reproduce so easily - they develop keikis freely, you can obtain plantlets from planting a cut leaf. I had started with 1 and at one stage had over 20 with my propagation efforts. There are a couple of threads on them...

[czayta]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

as for fungus gnats - the best solution to that problem are butterworts/pinguicula. Even though I have a rigid spraying regime, I still find a couple trapped in my butterworts' leaves.
Butterworts are also fascinating in that they reproduce so easily - they develop keikis freely, you can obtain plantlets from planting a cut leaf. I had started with 1 and at one stage had over 20 with my propagation efforts. There are a couple of threads on them...

I also bought 2 butterworts, 2 pinguicula, and a venus fly trap. It seems for me that the pinguicula is much better at trapping the flies than the butterworts.

[orchidsarefun]

? butterworts and pinguicula are the same thing...
Don't give up on them clearing your gnat problem. It may take a while but catching adults eventually breaks the lifecycle and vastly reduces the adult population.

[czayta]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

? butterworts and pinguicula are the same thing...
Don't give up on them clearing your gnat problem. It may take a while but catching adults eventually breaks the lifecycle and vastly reduces the adult population.

You're right they technically are the same thing, but I call this Butterwort (Common Butterwort)


And this Pinguicula:


They look different lol.

[orchidsarefun]

they do ! Try an experiment - twist off a leaf or 2 of the top 1 ( cos its special ) and plant 1 next to the parent. I'd say about 1/4 twisted end into the sphag. No 2 leaf lay flat and use a scissors to make small incisions along the outside of the leaf. That leaf should be pressed into sphag about 2mm ( not buried ). Both should grow babies if kept moist !

PS - that's if you don't know this already !

[czayta]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

they do ! Try an experiment - twist off a leaf or 2 of the top 1 ( cos its special ) and plant 1 next to the parent. I'd say about 1/4 twisted end into the sphag. No 2 leaf lay flat and use a scissors to make small incisions along the outside of the leaf. That leaf should be pressed into sphag about 2mm ( not buried ). Both should grow babies if kept moist !

PS - that's if you don't know this already !

I did not know this. :O I tried it. I took a leaf off and planted it:


and made small incisions on the 2nd leaf:


And I planted them in sphag. They look funny lol.

[orchidsarefun]

the leaf with incisions - lay it flat - sticky side up - on the sphagnum and cover with sphagnum in the middle to keep it all touching the sphag. Plantlets will grow from the incised areas...
You will then have 2 ways of propagating.
Good Luck !

Mine/(some)- all from the same plant I got about 2-3 years ago. Notice the bigger the leaf, the bigger the prey. That's a small housefly that has been caught in the bottom right plant.