Nepenthes Insect in the Philippines
This is one of the insect that I have seen so far that have successfully damaged my Nepenthes. It normally leave some brown spots on the
leaves and seems to like sucking the young leaves of the plant. This causes the leaves to get dry (even if it is still young) and wont open anymore.
As much as possible, I dont recommend to use insecticide to control them as you know Nepenthes are also called insectivorous (he he he).
But kidding aside, these insects can easily be killed by using your bare hands. Have you ever wonder how I was able to get a shot of that insect?
Well, I have already broke a part of its body just by my hands. Since I dont know how many of these are roaming in our garden, I have to
place all my neps inside a screened green house (see picture below). This will keep all other insects from getting in direct contact with my plants. To test if there
are no more insects of this kind, I used one of my alata (my sacrificial lamb) out of the green house. If there is no more signs of the insect, that
is the alata remains healthy, that is the sign that I can place my precious neps out of the green house again. Normally these insects are active during
the rainy season (July-October).Up to this writing, these insect have not visited my neps again (Well they are not welcome anymore).
I like the color of this insect. We call it "tilas" in our native tongue and it causes itch when your skin gets in contact with it.
This insect seems to exist in batches. Just this June 2003, I have around seven casualties of this insect already (do I sound like a murdered now?) and still increasing.
Just make sure that the greenslime wont see you as I would definitely cut you into half using my garden scissor.
This causes more damage to Nepenthes as it has a very big appetite. Young leaves and pitchers are its favorite and they normally wont leave anything
for your eyes. My alata and my sanguinea were the first victims of this black crawling insect. Ill just hope that When I get back home on a weekend I will still see my
plants with their leaves and pitchers intact.
This is the insect that I fear most in our garden. So many time that I have been in contact with this insect. This does not only give you
itch but the part of your body that will get in contact will definitely swell for days. They love to eat the leaves of bromeliads but wont
spare your neps either. They love attacking the plants in group. As you can see from their picture. They seems to be one happy family busy
mutching the leaves. I just use my garden scissor and cut them in half everytime I see one. Thats my brutal way of keeping them out of my sight.
