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All things have spirits, except mosquitoes and flies. Whatever the angle, they are annoying insects.
In order to get a good night's sleep at night, humans have developed various programs. Among them, the use of insectivorous plants, including flytraps, to reduce indoor mosquitoes and flies seems to be an environmentally friendly and high-end option.
But is it really possible to buy flycatchers indoors? What other misconceptions do we have about carnivorous plants?
(Image source: Veer Gallery)
Can carnivorous plants starve to death if they can't catch mosquitoes and flies?
No.
To make this clear, it is also necessary to explain why animals starve to death without eating.
Whether it is animals or plants, to survive, two major types of supplies are needed, one is bricks (materials) and the other is energy. Creatures grow like building a house, requiring bricks and tiles and the energy needed to build bricks and tiles into a house. Bricks and tiles include various elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, potassium, iron, etc., which will be combined with each other to form water, protein, fat, sugar, vitamins, carbon dioxide and various inorganic salts, so in many cases, organisms obtain bricks and tiles by absorbing these compounds. For example, proteins and some inorganic salts contain a lot of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur and other elements. At the same time, compounds such as fat, sugar, protein and other compounds also contain a lot of energy. So for animals, eating these things into their stomachs, bricks and energy are all obtained.
But plants are different, there are not many fats, sugars and proteins in the soil that contain energy for them to absorb, they can only absorb water from the soil, inorganic salts, which can only be used as bricks, but do not contain energy nutrients. In addition, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air through their leaves to obtain carbon and oxygen, two important bricks.
So where does the energy needed for plant growth come from? It is obtained from sunlight through the famous "photosynthesis". So light is a life-threatening thing for plants.
It can be seen that if animals do not eat, bricks and energy cannot be obtained, and can only starve to death. Plants without light will lose their energy source and will "starve to death" over time. But there are exceptions, some special plants will parasitize other plants, their roots can absorb all the bricks and energy directly from the host's body, so these parasitic plants can survive without sunlight, just like animals.
Schematic diagram of the source of animal and plant survival supply (image source: the author made it himself)
However, carnivorous plants are not parasitic plants, they contain chlorophyll like ordinary plants, which shows that they are inseparable from sunlight. Carnivorous plants prey on small animals only to absorb some substances in the small animals that do not contain energy, such as nitrogen. Nitrogen is an important class of bricks for plants, if the intake is insufficient will affect plant growth, so many plants will come up with various ways to supplement the lack of nitrogen in the soil. For example, like soybeans, symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria is one of the methods. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria can absorb nitrogen from the air and convert it into nitrogen-containing inorganic salts for plants to absorb.
In the soil where carnivorous plants grow, nitrogen is usually not abundant. Therefore, carnivorous plants mostly use the method of preying on small animals. Generally speaking, small animals such as insects are rich in protein, and after the protein is decomposed, a large amount of nitrogen is released. At the same time, small animals also contain a large amount of phosphorus, potassium and other inorganic salts, so predators can obtain a rich variety of nutrients.
However, none of the carnivorous plants have the ability to absorb energy-containing nutrients directly from their prey, and their source of energy is still sunlight. If carnivorous plants do not eat, they will only reduce the intake of some nitrogen, phosphorus and other bricks, and will not fundamentally cut off the source of bricks and tiles and energy, because the roots can still absorb a part of the nitrogen and phosphorus and other inorganic salts from the soil, so they will not cause starvation like animals do not eat. In contrast, if the carnivorous plants are not given sufficient light, the source of energy is completely cut off, and they will really "starve to death".
So, if you want to grow a carnivorous plant, don't pay too much attention to feeding. Light is more important than feeding!
Are carnivorous plants picky eaters?
Let's answer this question dialectically – they actually pick and don't pick.
To say that they are picky eaters mainly refers to the size of the food. For example, a small flycatcher, the prey is too big to hold, it is easy to escape, naturally can not eat. If you artificially force too much food, such as a piece of shrimp meat, it will cause the leaves to rot.
The types of food are also insect-oriented, and pork, fish, eggs, etc. are not suitable for feeding them, because these foods are usually hard and may have a high salt content.
It doesn't matter whether the insects they feed are dead or alive, because carnivorous plants cannot only rely on the struggle of their prey to feel the stimulation and turn on the digestive function. Like flytraps, although mechanical stimulation is initially required to trigger the clip to close, as long as it is clamped, even if the prey is dead, the proteins and other chemicals on its surface can still stimulate the clip to further open the digestive process.
They are not picky because some carnivorous plants can indeed "eat" many kinds of food. For example, the recipe for bottle-like insect traps is relatively extensive. For some nepenthes, as long as it can fall into the bottle (such as leaves, animal feces, dust, etc.), the nutrients released after decay can be absorbed.
Of course, if there is too much artificial feeding, it will also cause the bottle to rot and stink, causing the bottle to rot. Grow carnivorous plants at home, you can not feed anything, to ensure sufficient sunlight and moisture. Indoor small flying insects, small ants, small spiders or whatever, as long as they can catch themselves, eating something is enough.
In addition, there are many kinds of carnivorous plants, living in different environments, and they are good at eating anything. Such insectivorous plants such as jindiluo and spoon leaf thatch paste, the leaves are close to the ground, mainly catching ants and spiders crawling on the ground; long-leaved thatched grass, glandular grass, etc., their leaves extend into the air, mainly catching flying insects; tanuki, raccoon and other aquatic carnivorous plants, mainly catching prey in the water and even some impurity debris, etc.; terrestrial tanuki algae, spiny grass, etc. are mainly catching very small prey and even single-celled protozoa in the soil.
In the non-picky-eating Nepenthes family, some can even catch some small vertebrates occasionally; some can attract small mammals to defecate in the bottle; some can also attract some frogs or mosquitoes to lay eggs in the bottle, help feed on debris falling into the bottle, and finally absorb nutrients in their feces. So from this point of view, carnivorous plants are really not picky eaters.
From left to right: Gemdale, the leaves are flat on the ground; the blooms grass is stretched out into the air; the lotus leaf tantric algae insect sac, which catches tiny prey underwater (Image source: Author's homemade)
Can carnivorous plants "eat" food like animals?
No.
First of all, carnivorous plants have no stomach and cannot eat food into the stomach like animals. Some animals also do not eat food into the stomach, such as starfish, they spit out the stomach to wrap the food, and digest the food outside the body. This is very similar to carnivorous plants, whose insect traps are equivalent to the stomach, digesting and absorbing food directly outside the body.
But don't think that after the food is digested and absorbed, it disappears, or only a little residue is left. In fact, after the food is digested and absorbed, there will still be intact debris, and the size cannot even be changed. This is mainly because insects have exoskeletons, this part is not easy to digest and absorb, and the part that is digested and absorbed is mainly the protein in the insect body, so the digested insects do not change much compared with the appearance before.
The process of digestion and absorption by carnivorous plants may not be as magical as imagined, but their predation process is truly amazing. Among them, the performance of flycatchers is the most attractive.
Each leaf of the flycatcher has a shell-like clip to the top, and each clip has a row of thick teeth at the edge. When the clip is closed, the teeth cross together to prevent the prey from escaping. Each clip has 6 tentacles on the inside and 3 on each side. When a prey first touches a tentacle, the clip does not move. When any of these 6 tentacles are touched a second, the clip will quickly close within a second. At this time, the clip is just loosely closed, and there is still a certain space between the two lobes of the clip, and the prey can even walk back and forth inside. But chemicals on the surface of the prey can further irritate the clip to gradually clamp over several hours and secrete fluid to suffocate the prey to death.
In the weeks that follow, some of the proteins in the prey's body are broken down into amino acids or simply nitrogen-containing inorganic substances under the action of proteases secreted by flycatchers and bacteria, which are dissolved in water along with other inorganic salts and absorbed by clips. After the liquid gradually stops secreting, the clip is reopened, and the intact but flattened prey remains on the clip forever, taking up some space. But don't worry about the flycatcher "running out" of clips – it keeps growing new leaves, and there's always a new clip to use.
From left to right: Flycatcher, 3 tentacles on each side, several more in case of deformity; Flycatcher, note that two clips have been opened, of which there are two digested spiders (Image source: Author's homemade)
Do carnivorous plants move?
No.
In fact, quite a few carnivorous plants do not move. The most misunderstood topic on this topic is the carnivorous plant that uses bottles to prey on.
Predation by bottle is a large category of feeding methods of carnivorous plants, and their hunting tool is a bottle-like trap, usually with liquid in the bottle and a cap on the mouth of the bottle. The mouth of the bottle can often secrete droplets, generally sweet, and some can also emit a rich taste, attracting insects to come. When the insect accidentally falls into the bottle, it is difficult to escape, and finally drowns in the bottle. Many people think that when the prey falls into the bottle, the bottle cap will be closed to prevent the prey from escaping. In fact, all carnivorous plants that use bottles to prey on, the bottle cap is unable to move.
The droplets at the mouth of the bottle are very sweet (image source: the author made it himself)
So how do they prevent their prey from escaping? In general, the inner walls of bottle-like insect traps are very smooth, some have inverted hairs, and there is liquid in the bottle, and once the prey falls into it, it is difficult to climb out. Some of the liquids in The bottles are also viscous, making it more difficult to escape. Some bottle grass, the shape of the bottle is thin and tall, the internal space is small. Once the insect falls in, it is like falling into a deep and narrow well, and there is almost no possibility of climbing out. The inner wall of the bottle also has an inverted inverted edge, and the bottle mouth also has a row of inward growing barbs, which can also prevent prey from climbing out.
The question is, since the bottle cap is not used to cover the bottle to prevent the prey from escaping, what is the use of the bottle cap? It is thought that bottle caps may be more used to attract prey – some caps have colored and transparent markings, and some caps can also secrete sugar to attract prey to come and eat. In addition, the bottle cap can also play a role in shielding the rainwater, preventing too much water storage in the bottle from being too heavy and causing the bottle to fall.
Yellow bottle grass Honey juice on the cap of the bottle (image source: the author made it himself)
Pattern on the cap of the earthen vase grass (image source: the author made it)
Can cultivating carnivorous plants reduce indoor mosquitoes and flies?
Practice leads to true knowledge – basically ineffective. (Please don't hit me at the flower market and a treasure seller)
First of all, carnivorous plants don't always attract the variety of indoor insects you hate. Mosquitoes, for example, have a much more attractive skin that emits body temperature and sweat than carnivorous plants. Indoors like dark and damp cockroaches, stove horses, carnivorous worms generally do not run to carnivorous plants. In addition, attracting bugs is not necessarily a good thing - there are more indoor ants in the south, and if a nepenthes is planted, the honey juice it secretes may attract more ants to the house, which is simply a disaster for dense phobia patients.
Secondly, the hunting efficiency of carnivorous plants is not so high, and many times it is "coincidental" to catch prey. Flies that accidentally fly into the house may be caught in the weeds or stuck by the grass. But more often than not, it is actually impossible to catch. For carnivorous plants, preying on insects is not so life-threatening, so they will not try to catch prey like carnivores, but are more Buddhist, they can catch it and eat it, and it doesn't matter if they can't catch it, anyway, they don't die of hunger.
So, if you want to cultivate carnivorous plants, it's best not to expect them to help you put into practice the wise idea of "biological control" on the road to mosquito control. If you want to get a good night's sleep, having mosquito nets ready is king.
Author: Zeng Gang
Unit: Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The article was first published in the Science Compound and represents only the author's views and does not represent the position of the Science Compound.
The Academy of Sciences is the official science popularization micro-platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sponsored by the Science Communication Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and operated by the China Science Popularization Expo team, which is committed to the in-depth interpretation of the latest scientific research achievements and the scientific voice of social hot events.
Original title: I bought a flycatcher and put it at home and found...