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Pests and Diseases

Darlingtonia's are remarkably easy to grow being extremely hardy and resistant to most pests and diseases.  The main problems are listed below:

Pests

Greenfly

These tend to only affect the immature pitchers as they are developing, resulting in a deformed pitcher, usually incapable of catching any insects.  Control of the greenfly can be achieved by any of the usual methods for this pest, spraying any new growth with a systemic insecticide usually being the easiest method. 

Vine Weevil

This cannot be considered a serious pest as generally speaking they tend to leave Darlingtonia's alone.  On occasions however small infestations do seem to occur, usually resulting in the death of the infected plants.  The adult beetles themselves do not appear to do any damage to the plants at all, the real problem is the larvae. 

These will eat the roots, usually the first visible sign that there is a problem is the pitchers starting to wilt and die.  Examination of the plant will usually highlight it to be loose in its container.  By this time so much damage will have been done to the root system , that it is found the plant can be lifted straight out of the pot to reveal the larvae in the compost. 

Up to recently there was no treatment available to the amateur gardener, nowadays however there is a choice between chemical and biological control.  Both methods are equally effective, the choice being down to the individual and their views on the use of chemicals. 

Wasps

These do not cause any problem to the plant as a whole, rather occasionally when a wasp becomes trapped in a pitcher it will manage to eat its way through the side of the pitcher.  This only affects the plant from an aesthetic point of view, though it will provide an easy means of escape for any smaller insects that are subsequently captured by the trap. 

Diseases

Darlingtonia has proved remarkably resistant to any disease, even in plants that have become extremely crowded within their containers and contain many dead pitchers, Botrytis Cinerea (grey mould) has not become a problem.  Poor drainage of the compost or the use of alkaline water being the usual reasons for the roots and rhizomes to fail.