Snowdrop in a bottle

[Alan_b]

Just over a year ago (22^nd March 2012) I decided to try an experiment pitting a swift moth larva against a snowdrop.    I took a swift moth larva that I found in a pot and an ordinary garden snowdrop (a plicatus x nivalis hybrid, I think).  I cut the top off a 2 litre plastic drink bottle, planted the snowdrop in some John Innes No.3 compost, added the swift moth and enough water to make the compost moist.  The photograph is looking down inside the bottle (although you can barely see the sides) before I replaced the top.

   

[Alan_b]

I then sealed the top back on the bottle with sellotape and left the bottle in a shady spot at the back of the garden.  Initially it was buried up to the depth of the compost inside the bottle.  But after digging it up a few times to see if I could see inside I left it propped upright.  Then I pretty much forgot about it until this year when I saw that the snowdrop inside had survived and even flowered.  The bottle had remained sealed the entire year.  Here is a rather misty (sorry) picture of the snowdrop in a bottle. 

[Alan_b]

I removed the tape and opened the bottle.  The compost had remained moist, the snowdrop seemed fine without any visible damage and I could find no trace of the larva.  Either it did not find that particular snowdrop to its taste or it was already fat enough that it did not need to eat any more.  Whatever became of it, whether or not it had managed to pupate, it must have died and rotted away without a trace.   

[Alan_b]

If nothing else, I have learned that you can grow snowdrops in a bottle garden (if left outside).  It's rather an extreme measure but it offers excellent protection against insect predation.

[Paddy Tobin]

Don't answer that doorbell, Alan. There are men in white coats standing outside.


I think the snowdrops are having an effect on you. LOL

[Gerard Oud]

Must have been strong spirits  in that bottle, and then getting a idea to put a snowdrop in it with a white worm and some compost

[ChrisD]

I can imagine your garden in a few years time as a mass of plastic drinks bottles. 

Chris

[Maggi Young]

I was expecting this tale to end in a yucky photo of a rotted bulb.

I find myself wondering what happened to the larvae - I would have thought it could/ would  survive  in the bottle . More research needed, Alan?

[Alan_b]

Yes, I was not expecting the snowdrop to survive but it did.  I would like to think that the larva pupated, become a moth which flew around inside the bottle until it died and rotted away.

I would still like to catch a swift moth larva in the act of eating a snowdrop bulb. I have very powerful circumstantial evidence that they are responsible but I would like solid proof and knowing if they are particularly active at certain times of year might be helpful.  But it is so difficult to know what is going on underground.   

[Anthony Darby]

Maybe you'll find a ghost swift in the bottle?

[Alan_b]