Fly Trapping
Living in "horse country" has only one real drawback. Sometimes there are an abundance of flies. Because our doors are always open they do come in the house. Not hundreds, but a few that can become annoying. My solution is to bring in carnivorous plants. We have had them around for years, always amused by their wicked ways! They really do attract and kill flying insects so I was surprised that the flies were paying them no attention to this sarracenia that I had picked up at the nursery. Finally it dawned on me. They attract flies to their 'pitchers' with a sweet nectar that bugs find irresistible, and then the bug crawls in the plant and slide down into the pitcher where they get stuck and eventually digested by the plant for nutrients. 
The only thing I had forgotten is that while they are in bloom (see that unusual green flower?) they do not attract bugs to their pitchers because they need to use the bugs as pollinators! They wait until they are done blooming and no longer need pollinators to start attracting and eating them! How genius is that? Oh well, back to the fly swatter for a couple weeks because I don't have the heart to cut off that beautiful bloom!
Living in "horse country" has only one real drawback. Sometimes there are an abundance of flies. Because our doors are always open they do come in the house. Not hundreds, but a few that can become annoying. My solution is to bring in carnivorous plants. We have had them around for years, always amused by their wicked ways! They really do attract and kill flying insects so I was surprised that the flies were paying them no attention to this sarracenia that I had picked up at the nursery. Finally it dawned on me. They attract flies to their 'pitchers' with a sweet nectar that bugs find irresistible, and then the bug crawls in the plant and slide down into the pitcher where they get stuck and eventually digested by the plant for nutrients. 
The only thing I had forgotten is that while they are in bloom (see that unusual green flower?) they do not attract bugs to their pitchers because they need to use the bugs as pollinators! They wait until they are done blooming and no longer need pollinators to start attracting and eating them! How genius is that? Oh well, back to the fly swatter for a couple weeks because I don't have the heart to cut off that beautiful bloom!
2 comments:
Very cool! I am always amazed by the ingenuity of plants. And carnivorous plants seem to be at the top of the creative list, almost seeming like living oxymorons to us.
i love the birdhouse !
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