Not exactly a pest control story, more a pest happens to be named in the headline story – but interesting none-the-less:
Share this page...Stewart McPherson, Alastair Robinson and Volker Heinrich decided to name the plant after Sir David as an “expression of gratitude” for his decades of work celebrating the natural world. Read more.
4 Comments
I read this story the other day. I think it sounds like something out of a horror film…saying that though, would be interesting to see how it works. Quite fascinating really.
@Brig: Actually the process is quite simple: The plants grow pitchers which are filled with water and enzymes (not too sure about that though) and have a very slippery fringe. Once an insect, or in the case of Nephentes rajah or N. attenborroughi, a small rodent gets attaracted by the water, it slips and falls. With no chance of escaping, they drown and decompose. The plant uses these caught insects as a fertilizer boost because its envrionment will not supply enough nnutrients for it to grow. That is why you will usually find carnivorous plants in areas with very poor soil conditions, such as swamps and moors.
In a way, it gets even more interesting. There are ants (for example Camponotus schmitzi of Borneo, a somewhat specialized carpenter ant) that have specialized in diving into the pitchers and deprive the plant of the food it caught. These ants have somehow managed to cope with the slipperiness of the pitchers, where other insects usually just fall in and die. On top of that they are diving in the water.
Considering that hunting for food in the jungle can be quite strenuous, I think these ants are on the right track by exploiting the pitcher plants. Whether it is fair should be discussed somewhere else.
Thank you for the explanation. Am impressed with how much you know about this! So basically they don’t consciously lean down to pluck rats off the ground and consume them…as the film may have led us to believe. Thanks for clearing that up. Amazing plants though all the same!
Perhaps we could get some of these plants as well as one of those rat-dogs from the TV show?? (alternatively we could just stick to Bromatrol which works!)