Please help on my D. paradoxa

[LJ_Tan]

Originally Posted by jason840220

I've experienced such phenomenon before. The plant stop forming open traps and shrinking by days.

After some casualties, only to find out the plant's root system was parasited by fungus gnat larva. These worm-liked xenomorphs sized less than 1mm and their bodies are partially translucent making detection fairly difficult. They penerate roots and suck up the sap from plant further stressing the limited energy CP has for proper growth.

I notice if the media is consistently wet and rich in nutrient, the tendency for such occurance to happen is pretty high. Also, I do found out petiolaris complex members (judging from what I've seen) can't endure these onslaughts in relative to other sundews (1 of my trays with mixed species was infected whilst only petiolaris complex suffered).

Repotting is rather a direct alleviation, alternatively, you can try soak the infected pots in Newro 505 (Chlorpyrifos 45.9%, Cypermethrin 4.6%) for approx. 10~15mins to kill them in contact. A side note, neem oil killed most bugs but these worms.

To prevent such inccident, I always wash my media for a couple of times before using it. This also prevent moss / slime to grow on your media (especially if you're using water tray method) for a really long time.

Dear Jason,

Noted and thank for sharing.

I hope this plant can re-cover ASAP.

[VFT]

I have a pot of nepenthes seed started, this is my first attempt at growing CP from seed. Just last night discovered these tiny clearish worms. . . 2 hours of research and it turns out that they are fungus gnat larva. After even more research I have discovered that a slice of potato will draw quite a few larva away from your plant, I used a tooth pick to remove a few stragglers and have placed a fresh slice of potatoe to hopefully draw out the rest of the larva before my seeds begin to root. I also purchased a sticky trap to catch any adults that may hatch from pupa before they can lay more eggs. I recomend changeing the potato every day to remove as many larva before they turn into pupa. Wish me luck and I hope this helps anyone else with this problem.