Please help on my D. paradoxa

[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.