Carnivorous Plant Eating a Bee
This March we bought a carnivorous plant from our local garden centre. We wanted something to help keep down the number of tiny flies that like to buzz around our kitchen during the hotter months.
We ended up getting a sarracenia. This is not the traditional venus flytrap type of plant, but a lure down and digest them type of plant.
Until today, we had been wondering how effective the carnivorous plant was at trapping flies. The number of flies has dwindled to almost zero and the plant seems to be thriving, if growth is any indicator.
Despite these suggestions of success, we had not seen anything trapped by the plant.
Mother Nature
This afternoon’s performance would have been a good moment to show to children; a “teachable moment”, a phrase I hope never to actually utter. We watched enthralled as a sizeable bee flew into the kitchen through an open window, around the plant, then landed time and time again on the plant’s lethal tube like structures.
The bee was eating the sticky droplets around the edge of tube.
After a few minutes of this, the bee became more daring and proceeded to crawl down one tube. Luck seemed to be on the bee’s side. The tube was too small and the bee was able to wriggle itself free.
The second time the bee ventured too far. The tube was big enough. We watched with mixed emotions at the sight of the bee struggling inside half way down the tube. Then suddenly the shadow of the bee slid all the way down. Firmly lodged, head first, into the tube. There it wriggled but with no possibility of escape.
A short film of the sarracenia and bee shows the final moments.