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got to be the most effective flytrap in my collection


danthecpman

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One of my favourite drosera and I have never seen so many flies caught on one plant as I have this year! 

 

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I have sat and watched them just throw themselves at it which makes me wonder it their some sort of attractant it uses to do this?? Even my divisions I had of it are the same absolutely plastered in smaller flies!

Just wondering if any of the regia experts know anymore about why they seem so much more attractive to flies than other dews?

Cheers

Dan 

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Incredible! There's even another fly at the top of the picture ready to take the plunge. Maybe the big drops of mucilage are part of why they're more attractive. It does make me wonder how such a brilliant hunter hasn't spread across a wider area than the one valley it lives.

I've just started mine out from seed, and looking at pictures like these I don't think I'll have to fertilise it very often. I can see why other people would prefer fertilising a green plant to having a pitch black insect graveyard, though.

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24 minutes ago, carambola said:

Incredible! There's even another fly at the top of the picture ready to take the plunge. Maybe the big drops of mucilage are part of why they're more attractive. It does make me wonder how such a brilliant hunter hasn't spread across a wider area than the one valley it lives.

I've just started mine out from seed, and looking at pictures like these I don't think I'll have to fertilise it very often. I can see why other people would prefer fertilising a green plant to having a pitch black insect graveyard, though.

Yeah it amazes me, although I do agree you would have thought they would be very populous in their native range!

Yeah it is rather unsightly but I don't use fertiliser on any of my plants so would rather them get their nutrients the natural way :biggrin: 

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Wow , that's a lot of flys! How do you get so many flys in your greenhouse, or si it kept outside in the summer?

Lovely plant by the way, D, regia is my favorite Drosera aswell.

Edited by B52
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that's quite amazing Dan.  Mine looks like a similar size to yours yet has caught hardly anything so far, I've seen very few insects of a decent size in my greenhouse this year.  You're not cheating by keeping a dead body under the staging are you?  :wink:

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8 hours ago, Gaz said:

that's quite amazing Dan.  Mine looks like a similar size to yours yet has caught hardly anything so far, I've seen very few insects of a decent size in my greenhouse this year.  You're not cheating by keeping a dead body under the staging are you?  :wink:

 

I think it could be the amount of purpureas I keep as they are all smelling rather ripe to be honest but you may be onto something with the dead body haha :vinsent: i also have an allotments directly behind me so the various types of manure could be helping to cultivate them, either way all the plants are loving them :biggrin:

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They would last long in the wild if they weren't allowed to catch flies. I still find it fascinating to see the leaf curl around a fly. You might as well have an orchid instead if you don't want flies stuck on the leaves hehe :tu:

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My regia's are the same - plastered in fly cadavers.

I think a combination of leaf size, upright posture and gland sizes help ensnare prey, as my filliformis plants also seem to do fairly well with upright leaves, yet have fewer prey items on them. The large glands probably are key, as the small prey will struggle much harder to escape from a big blob of sticky mucilage! The impressive and relatively quick leaf curl response, also further ensures the prey are helplessly trapped.

Incidentally, from your picture it looks as though your regia is placed at the back of your greenhouse against the glass? This will be another factor increasing fly trapping - they will fly in and travel to the back, not realising the glass is solid and as they hang about and start to turn back, they'll find the sticky leaves in the way!

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