Just In Time for Halloween--Meat-Eating Plants

YouTube won't let me embed this one, so you'll have to head over there to see this video of a pitcher plant that even eats small mammals like rats.  Creepy!  But wait, you want to see creepy?  Watch this caterpillar fight with a Venus fly trap.  And you thought your Monday sucked.

Comments

[kim]

I think those pitcher plants are very cool - much moreso than the wimpy ones that grew in a bog near where I grew up.

[greg draiss]

There are gardeners who are cannibals?
Scary: Very Scary

[Cameron (Defining Your Home Garden)]

Great Halloween video! Sometimes reality beats the movies! Cameron

[commonweeder]

I was riveted! Talk about nature red in tooth and claw - and leaf.

[Lisa Albert]

Cool and creepy, all without bloody gore; my kind of Halloween fright fare.

[Bob Vaiden]

Wonderful! What a fantastic planet we live on!!!

I may want to be a bit more careful out in the garden, though:)

[themanicgardener]

I haven't felt that sorry for a caterpillar in a long time. But just at the end, it looked as if it got away! So, um, er, thanks, I think.

(The pitcher plant video is fantastic. I didn't realize the things had lids. Definitely thanks on that one. )
--Kate

[Sue (Catmint)]

Wow! What drama - I am so pleased the caterpillar got away!!!!!!!!

[Danny Staple]

I bought a number of carnivorous plants as part of my pest control regime.
However, pitcher plants were not stocked in my local garden centres.

There was a Venus Flytrap and a couple of Sundews. However - Aphids got the better of a Sundew (I did not expect that!) and the flytrap died as the cold dark winter took hold - they do not cope with winters, even as an indoor window plant.

If you follow my link - I have a question there about should I feed aphids to a pitcher plant. It would not really control them, but it would be good to see the little monsters gone. However, the question is would they also manage to take over the pitcher plant like they did my sundew?