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CARNIVARY PLANTS KEEP THE HOME FREE OF FLIES
Most people have experienced a kitchen suddenly full of annoying little flies. They can originate from slightly rotten fruit in the fruit bowl, from fly eggs in the soil around fresh herbs or perhaps they are hatched at the bottom of the waste bin. Carnivorous plants offer a different and fun way to get rid of the flies.
A GREENHOUSE WITH Flies
One day I saw a gardening program on TV about a man who had a large greenhouse. Heavy bunches of dark grapes hung under the glass roof. His problem was that as the grapes neared maturity, some of them began to rot and soon the greenhouse was filled with flies and other insects.
He had tried insect traps and old tips to get rid of the insects, but nothing helped. Finally, he found the solution: He procured many carnivorous plants in pots, which he placed around the greenhouse. It worked.
THEN IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO SPRAY
I think that most people know that you get annoying banana flies and the like when you buy fresh herbs to take home. Or perhaps you have forgotten an apple in the fruit bowl that has become too old. However, carnivorous plants might be the right solution.
Outside they can fend for themselves, but inside you must feed them if there aren’t enough insects – some botanists say they even feed them small pieces of boiled egg or even chocolate.
GROW YOUR OWN CARNIVAL PLANTS
In many countries, carnivorous plants are found wild in the nature, primarily in nutrient-poor bogs, where they stand with their roots in the bog mulch.
At most larger nurseries you can buy different types of small carnivorous plants that can thrive indoors. You can buy both seed bags or small ready-made plants and the price is quite modest, approx. DKK 40 – 80 – so it’s cheap to get started. For example, fill a HERBSTER TUBE with bog soil that you keep moist and plant a carnivorous plant in each of the four holes. The soil must be mixed with approx. 2/3 sphagnum and 1/3 gravel. The plant must be kept constantly wet and light, but otherwise follow the growing instructions for the different types of carnivorous plants.
Then it is just a matter of waiting for a small fly to be caught and eaten.
CARNIVOROUS PLANTS THAT EAT RATS
Out in the wide world, carnivorous plants have been found which are much larger than those we can find wild in the wild in Europe. In 2007, a team of British botanists discovered a giant carnivorous plant in a mountain area in the Philippines – it was so big that it could devour an entire rat! This exciting plant was named after the famous nature expert David Attenborough: Nepenthes Attenboroughii.