A couple of weeks ago I split my sarracenias. (I’ll never father children now). Potted them up and now have eight of them dotted around the staging of the greenhouse.
Whilst potting them on, I noticed how the base of one of the old pitchers had split to reveal its contents. Pretty gruesome but also remarkable that the plant had devoured so many insects – (we’re just going to assume that all these insects were pests and that insectivorous plants don’t eat beneficial insects OK? OK. No guilt trip here, thanks). If you multiply the number of pitchers (several dozen) and add in the four venus flytraps that I have, that’s pretty impressive, non-chemical, (pest) insect control.
Now, if I could only teach them to hunt……..
The Anxious Gardener 
Hi Stacy, no. No extra day off I'm afraid – I really love being self-employed but the big downside is no paid holiday. Sigh. Makes me sad ….
Indeed Sara, creepy chewed-up critters!
Hi Karin, I think there's a biggy pitcher plant that catches small rodents!! But, yeah a slug eating one would be great though I wouldn't want to see it's innards.
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. . . imagine if they grew outdoors and ate slugs as well!
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Shudder. Amazing plants, but definitely creepy – especially when you see all the mashed up critters they've been chewing on.
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There don't seem to be any little halos among the gunk, so surely you must be right–the pitchers just don't eat beneficial insects. Seriously, though, that's really impressive–I had no idea they could capture/eat so much. They must save you a ton of problems in the greenhouse.
Hope you get a retaliatory day off soon to make up for yesterday, by the way.
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