Montana Women Sells Insect Eating Plants

Montana Women Sells Insect Eating Plants CROPS Insect Control 15-5-32 A Montana farm wife who first got interested in carnivorous plants when she was a girl has launched a sideline business selling insect-eating plants all over the country. "They're great when it comes to catching bugs that lurk in country homes," says Connie Rubens, Carter, Mont., who sells some 15 different varieties of insect-eaters, including Venus Flytraps, Sweet Trumpet, African Sundew, and others. "They capture flies, mosquitoes, gnats, moths, ants and spiders, eliminating the need for home insecticides and making your fly swatter obsolete." Rubens became fascinated with carnivorous plants in high school and started cultivating them seriously after she moved with her husband to their farm in Montana. "When I realized how hard they are to find, I started growing them to sell at local farmer's markets and then by mail to gardeners all over the country," she says. In addition to their insect-catching abilities, Rubens says carnivorous plants are also beautiful, unusual-looking plants that often amaze people with their odd-shaped leaves and glistening, jewel-like surfaces. She says they're not any more trouble to grow than ordinary houseplants. In the wild they generally grow in boggy, rainy areas so they should be grown in moss, kept moist and placed in bright light. "I have them on window sills all around my house." Each plant has a different way of catching insects. Venus Flytraps have leaves that look like open clam shells. They're covered with tiny trigger hairs. When an insect alights on them, the two halves of the shell snap shut, trapping the insect. The plant then secretes digestive juices that absorb the nutrients of the insect into the plant. An-other variety, called Pitcher plants, have "pitfall traps". An insect is lured to the trap's slippery edge by a trail of nectar and then falls into a pool of disgetive fluid and can't climb out. Carnivorous plants need a steady diet of insects to stay healthy. If they're not getting enough bugs, you can feed dead insects to them by hand. No other fertilizer is needed Although she's never tried it, Rubens says insect-eating plants could be placed in pots outside around garden plants to gobble up troublesome insects. She says experiments are being conducted in California to grow carnivorous plants in orchards to eliminate the need for insecticides. Live plants range in price from $3.00 to $5.00 apiece. Some varieties can be propagated by seed, which sells for $2.00 for a packet of 25 seeds. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, C.M. Rubens, Box 41, Carter, Mont. 59420 (ph 406 452-8021).

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