feeding Nepenthes with mealworms

[matwag]

Hello, apologies if this question has been answered before. Does anyone know whether dried mealworms like those sold for feeding birds would be suitable for feeding Nepenthes?

Thanks in advance Matwag:-)

[Guest paul y]

I cant see how it would be a problem, I feed the small collection I have with fish food flakes straight into the pitchers once a fortnight and they grow really well, I don't think any carnivorous plant is aware whats in its pitchers and they certainly have no control over their captures, they just catch and digest and I also think they have evolved to deal with a large range of different prey items, insects amphibians snails slugs woodlice mice rats and birds have all been caught by these plants, a certain nep whose name escapes me has developed a relationship with a tree shrew where the nep now feeds on the shrews poo,

try a very small amount in 1 pitcher of one plant and wait and see, any issues will be expressed in the pitcher and the leaf its attached to,

im willing to bet the leaf goes a deeper shade of green and the pitcher looks more vibrant, if that's the case after a week or so, establish a routine and stick to it, also vary the food as well, your local fish shop will sell blister packs of frozen bloodworm (midge larvae) I use these defrosted and chopped on everything cp you could name except pings.

hope this helps

[manders]

Not good for very small (seedling) pitchers as it will rot them. They smell a bit too if there are too many n large pitchers. I find gardens snails are a better option.

[Guest paul y]

I have snails rotting in my purps outside, one smells so bad ive called it theon because it reeks!

[manders]

I think purps primarily work by letting stuff rot. I have several in a nep pitcher and no obvious smell, ill go check though.

[Phil Green]

I use them and have done for years. Both for seedlings and adults.

 when the seedling pitcher is too small for even the smallest Meal Worm, I extract the column of dried blood from their centre and pop that into a pitcher - works wonders for very small seedlings.

[matwag]

Hello, thanks for your replies, I think I'll give it a go as the Nepenthes are in an enclosed space so can't catch their own food, I'd tried feeding some Nepenthes years ago with something called can o crickets from a reptile shop once which were supposedly small crickets preserved in their own juices but these rotted the pitchers very quickly even though I only added tiny amounts and the crickets didn't contain any additional additives .

[manders]

I have snails rotting in my purps outside, one smells so bad ive called it theon because it reeks!

I went out and had a good sniff in one of my 1litre pitchers with several snails in the bottom, yes it whiffs a bit if you stick your nose in the mouth of the pitcher, cant smell much in the greenhouse generally though, maybe because the autovents are open a lot these days. Pretty much whatever you feed in if its a bit meaty is going to whiff, mealworms included.

[19Silverman93]

I have snails rotting in my purps outside, one smells so bad ive called it theon because it reeks!

  haha

 

as to the question of the thread, mealworms are AOK in my books, though they are a bit big for smaller plants so I tend to favour bloodworms crumbled into the pitchers instead.