You Picked the Wrong House Buddy - Gotchya!

My largest Drosera Capensis

I don't have a problem with them. And I never see them. I used to fight with roaches but not anymore.

Sometimes one likely gets in when bringing something home from the market or when a delivery arrives. Cardboard, you know. I guess so because I woke up this morning and when I finally got around to checking the water level on my plants, I noticed this guy hanging out on one of the brand new leaves.

Again I say, "You pick the wrong house buddy."

As you can see here, there are a ton of new leaves since the warmer weather hit.

The leaves look like sticks coming up from the middle, they unfold and the little head starts to lift. Then the leaf slowly unrolls and the little hairs unfold from the center and they get the enzyme droplets on the end.

A lot of people ask me, can these plants really catch bugs?

Not only can they catch fairly large bugs, but they can do it before the leaf is even open all the way. I suppose you would say that the newer leaves have the most amount of sticky stuff to catch bugs but they seem to catch the bugs quite well even when their weeks old. See the lower leaves full of gnats toward the bottom.

I do not have any mercy on gnats or spiders. I especially hate roaches though. This one looks like he worked his way off the top and was hanging, then even used his antennas to try to push himself off.

That didn't work!

He was not moving so he either died or is very drunk on the tasty nectar.

When I find a grasshopper or butterfly caught, I pull them off and let them go but most days, I just let the plants keep the garden free of pests.

This is how it works

The bugs get stuck ti the sticky tentacle-like hairs. Struggling makes the sticky enzyme on the leaves become even more sticky. The bugs eat some of it and go to sleep or calm down. Then they are digested over a week long process until they fall off to make room for new bugs.