---
title: "Can anyone explain why his trap is turning black? It was fine…"
description: "Can anyone explain why his trap is turning black? It was fine yesterday."
url: "https://getplanta.com/community/lKxUkhzRR_aIJD7o1QvtwQ/UTFjLvF0TTeNbjul0JZlBQ"
community: "Pests, diseases and problems"
author: "VioletCrow"
published: "2024-07-22T23:31:06.436878Z"
language: "en"
image: "https://images.getplanta.com/v1/resize/TLW3bntApycCjGV8fedjyPa4cEWo66HNj3vvO5GMgkc/XApWg7-xRVSC4UA2V4b15g.webp?size=large"
---

[Community](https://getplanta.com/community.md) / [Pests, diseases and problems](https://getplanta.com/community/lKxUkhzRR_aIJD7o1QvtwQ.md)

# Can anyone explain why his trap is turning black? It was fine…

_Posted by VioletCrow on 2024-07-22_

Can anyone explain why his trap is turning black? It was fine yesterday.

![Attachment 1 of 1](https://images.getplanta.com/v1/resize/TLW3bntApycCjGV8fedjyPa4cEWo66HNj3vvO5GMgkc/XApWg7-xRVSC4UA2V4b15g.webp?size=large)

## 6 comments

### Riley commented on 2024-07-23

Have you been feeding it? Once a trap has been fed a few times, it dies. But since so many are dying, it looks like either overfeeding or some kind of rot.

#### VioletCrow replied on 2024-07-23

I haven't fed it at all, and they've never been closed :/ thanks for the tips though.

#### KD 🪴 replied on 2024-07-23

Maybe it’s hangry

#### Shamana replied on 2024-07-23

Lol Hangry

### Ray commented on 2024-07-23

There’s a number of things, tap water will kill it (although I don’t think this is a tap water issue). I’m sure you already know but just in case, never use tap water on your traps. Use distilled.

Since you have not fed the traps, it could be too cold. If it gets too cold it puts the traps in dormancy and kills off all of the traps ultimately putting the Venus to sleep. They can live months without food, if it has been months it’s not a cold issue.

I recommend feeding one of the traps cutting off the old black traps to conserve the energy so it can push out new traps. Don’t feed both of the traps only feed one of the traps and feed it live food. I would recommend it smaller food. Such as mealworms, flies, and lady bugs.

You could also change out the substrate I don’t know if the green things on the top are slow release fertilizer balls, but those will kill your fly trap. They get fertilizer through their food, I recommend peat sphagnum moss or just sphagnum moss.

#### VioletCrow replied on 2024-07-24

Oh my gosh thank you! This was super helpful! 💙

---

_Source: the Planta community (https://getplanta.com). Reading is open to everyone. To post, comment and like, get the Planta app: https://getplanta.com/download_