critter pic

I fed the maggots to my Venus flytraps! It seemed like sweet revenge.

Tina,

At first I though you might have the Narcissus Bulb Fly maggot but in my experience with these monsters which is a lot, there is usually only one maggot that eats the center out of the bulb. But the outside of your bulb looks different than any of mine did. The fact that the outside of your bulb is slimy with rot and you have an infestation of smaller maggots suggests to me that it's something other than the dreaded NBF.

I personally have trouble with Chicos rotting as I now know they like to be high 'n' dry. I think the maggots and too much wetness caused the rot but where the maggots originated from I'm not sure.
You could try to save your bulbs but as Chico as readily available I would just buy some new next season and you can experiment with these and try to save them but life it too short to wait for these bulbs to ever bloom again (for me anyway).

Maybe someone else has some thoughts but as I say, I'd buy new ones. (Of course this is just my opinion....)

I absolutely love that you fed them to your venus fly traps the ultimate revenge...a slow insidious death!

Donna

Thanks for your reply Donna! It sounds like I should at least lift the remaining bulb to keep it "high & dry". I thought that the potting mix was fast draining enough, but maybe not... it's about 50% potting soil with chunks of coconut husk, perlite and rice hulls comprising the other 50%. -Tina

berkeleys, which soil mix have you used to grow your venus flytraps?

Snarfie, I grow the Venus flytraps in a peat, sand and perlite mix. The peat must not have any added fertilizers. I used sand for pool filters- rinsed it very well with reverse osmosis water. I rinsed the perlite too. These flytraps are in an 8 inch pot. Being in a big pot keeps them from drying out (which is how I've killed 99% of my flytraps previously). They also stayed outside all winter... even through the frost. They're coming out of their winter slumber and growing really fast now. -Tina

All my flytraps and Sarracenias sit in water trays with about an inch of water in them. LOVE Carnivorous plants!

Hi Tina,

I discovered I have the same maggots in some of my pots recently. I think they are the Lesser bulb flies. Well, the first time I put the bulbs (these were small bulbs about 16-18cm) in hot water for 5-7 minutes, but I was afraid for the bulbs, so I took them out. The maggots were all dead. Then I brushed the wounds with sulfur powder and repot them. However, all the leaves died after that probably from the boiled roots :( I think the bulbs are still alive, but probably would take a while to recover.

Well, today I found one NBF larvae and a couple tiny lesser bulb fly maggots in my Papilio bulbs. I cleaned up the basal plates and the bulbs look healthy and had not much damage except for one small tunnel. I want to kill the larva, but not sure if I should subject the bulbs to the same heat treatment earlier as that would kill the robust roots. Do you have any suggestion?

Also, do I need to microwave the pot soil when I repot these bulbs?

Once I cleaned up the bulbs that were healthy enough to survive, everything was fine. I suspect that the warmth of late spring/ early summer combined with moisture created some kind of fast rot with the bulbs. I suspect the maggots/larvae were a secondary problem (i.e.- they were attracted to the bulbs because they were rotting, rather than the bulbs rotting because of the larvae). Unfortunately, I don't have any advice on how to deal with your current problem, BunnyNomNom. Microwaving the soil or starting over with fresh soil is probably a good idea. -Tina