An active plant ...

[leilani]

This morning as I started working in the nursery I noticed a bad smell. At first, I thought it might be a compost bucket that had filled with water but then, I suspiciously looked over at a large N. truncata in the area.



Sporting a couple of 19" pitchers and a couple of smaller ones I went to investigate.





Sure enough, this was the source of the odor ......



A little adjustment to the photo and it is clear that this has been a busy pitcher. By my count: 1 mouse, 1 large moth, 1 fly and some other smaller flying insect stuck to the pitcher wall.



Also, there was this little spider working along the peristome ....

[peterhewitt]

I can almost smell that from here. do you leave the mice in the pitchers or remove them? I'm sure its great nutrition, but working around it would then be.....unpleasant.

[jonathan]

The conductor!

[morbus]

wow
a few amazing things in one pic - NICE
the 19" pitcher is the best though!

knowing what regular prey can smell like when it gets out of hand - i can only imagine what a mouse smells like . . .

[dvg]

Leilani, i've been following the mouse catchers in your nursery.

Your N. 'Caesar' has caught it's share of rodents, and now your N. truncata is following suite.

I was wondering how they are able to scale these large pitchers, as it doesn't look like they are using the pitcher's wings or ladders.

Do you have any other pitchers that are efficient rodent nabbers?

dvg