Hi,

I hope I have the right forum for this. I have a few venus flytraps that I transplanted into a terrarium last night. I set it up beautifully, with all the right soil, water, etc. This morning when I woke up, 2 or them were covered in fungus (I think). Hopefully these pictures are clear, but this is what it looks like. It reminds me of when you blow on a dandelion, the white fluffy part that comes off. Anyway, I wanted to know if
a) anyone knows about the care of VFT's, and
b) anyone knows about fungicide.

I was limited to fungicide that did not include insecticide, since they have to eat live bugs. The only 2 I found were Ortho Garden Disease Control, and Bordeaux Powder. The problem is, there are different mixture instructions for different types of plants, and nothing specifically for VFT's. Does anyone know what I should do? (I have since taken the offending 2 VFT's out of the tank, in hopes that they can't infect the remaining 2, until I figure out what to do.)

If I am in the wrong forum, can someone please copy this post onto another one? A couple of them were saying that I didn't have access.

Thanks so muh in advance!

Amber

hmmmmmmmmmm
since they look healthy and green, i would recommend changing the soil, and cleaning up each plant as best and gently as you can. That should get rid of the mold. The mold could be caused by standing water. Are they in standing water? their soil stuff has to be moist, but well drained. So a mixture of sphagnum, sand, and pearlite is recommended.

I also noticed that all ur traps are closed o.O Have you been playing with the traps, or are those traps being fed? each trap can only close up to 12 times, and the entire plant probably catches 1 or 2 bugz a month. So i wouldn't overfeed it, or snap the traps too much >.<

they love humidity, and partial shade too ^.^ they're kind of a boggy plant. *thinks* http://www.pitcherplant.com has a care sheet for them which is pretty helpful too

good luck with them!
~Phoebe

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Nako's Webshots!

Thanks again, Amy! As you can see, I don't make it to this site often enough. As it turns out, I didn't have enough circulation, which I was trying to avoid because VFT's are humidity lovers. I added the tiniest opening, and now they're fine (after just a day or so). Some of the traps work, some don't. They don't eat too much (unless they're eating the fungus gnats), but they seem to be pretty healthy so far. They're not really in standing water, it's more like the bottom layer is small polished rock, then the medium (is that the right word? or loam?) They are moisture lovers, so there's plenty of water in there, as of last night. Befor I just kept misting the soil, but last night I read that you should be able to pick up a piece of soil, and if you squeezed it, water could run down your arm. So I soaked it (with distilled water of course). Thanks for the website - I'm totally obsessed with these little guys now, if anyone has any advice at all, I'd love to hear!