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Hi! I was at the store today and spotted some venus flytraps, I loved… | Carnivorous Corner | Planta community

Aria

Hi! I was at the store today and spotted some venus flytraps, I loved them as a kid and decided to buy one. I tried to pick the most lively looking one of the bunch but it’s still very droopy and sad. I have repotted it in a 10cm pot with one part perlite and 2 parts sphagnum peat moss, & keeping the saucer filled with a little bit of water. What is the most recommended thing to feed it? I don’t get many house flies but we definitely have ant problems throughout the year. Should I visit a reptile store? This is my first time with a plant of this type and I’m super excited but would love some help! ❤️

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15 comments

  1. RoseRed

    I have a Venus Flytrap that I’ve managed to keep alive since September, so I’m also a newbie. But, here’s what I do. I feed it about once every 3 weeks or so, usually whatever insects I can find easily. I’ve feed my flytraps spiders, ants, and slugs—all live. The plant is small but thriving so far.

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    • OGForestGreen

      Do you only use a grow light on yours? I use grow lights on mine and they seem to be doing fine in terms of overall health, but the mouths still don’t even have a hint of red in them. I was reading not all varieties do it. I got mine from Walmart, don’t even know what variety it is.

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    • RoseRed

      Yes, I use grow lights exclusively for this plant and the mouths have become very red—surprisingly so. I don’t know the variety—bought it from a visiting nursery at a plant show—but it did have some red at first. What confuses me is that it used to have stems with heads but now the mouths are all so close to the dirt. Does yours have much vertical growth?

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    • OGForestGreen

      My traps are only a couple months old. I was reading about that earlier as well. Mine have long stems, I was reading this could be due to a lack of light though. So now I’m curious if my grow lights are cutting it. This pic is from about a week ago I believe.

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    • OGForestGreen

      Have you ever repotted yours? I’m having a hard time finding carnivorous plant mix in my area. If I got organic Canadian sphagnum peat moss and rinsed it really well u think a 50/50 mixture with perlite would work? Two of the plants are producing tons of little traps so I’d like to separate them. I dont know if they’ll make it to next winter in the same pot

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  2. RoseRed

    Also, I think the app recommends watering flytraps too frequently—it suggests every 2 days. I water it about every 4 days or so and the soil stays quite wet. I’ve heard you can let them sit in water since it’s a bog plant, but I’ve not tried that. Good luck! 🪴

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  3. OGForestGreen

    I started by feeding mine dried mealworms. They didn’t seem to want to digest that very well even after soaking the bugs. Switched to a mixture of beta pellets, blood worms, and the leftover mealworms. Ground it into a powder, now I just mix it into a paste and feed that to my flytraps. They seem to be doing well of that so far.

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    • OGForestGreen

      I have two with large traps that kind of lay down. Was told some flytraps are just ground huggers. So as long as the plant looks healthy the leaning leaves my not be that bad

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  4. OGForestGreen

    Apologies for spamming your post with my own questions. Here’s some info I found that I’ve been pasting around recently. Hope it answers a few of your flytrap questions. For the flytraps. They are full light plants that require a ton of water. Apparently u need distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water, minerals in the soil or water will kill the plants. Someone also told me treated aquarium water would work but I'm not going to risk it in my plants right now. Some say to leave the plants sitting in an inch of water so that it’s constantly moist. I dont. I just water it more regularly than a normal plant. Guides I’ve read say they can go 1-2 months just on photosynthesis but it’s good to feed them actual bugs like 1-2 times per month. Some guides say to have one trap actively feeding at all times. It’s all pretty interesting. Says it takes a week for the trap to reopen after feeding. For the feeding they have these little hairs inside the mouth. Gotta touch em multiple times within like 20 seconds to get the actual trap to close. Then the trap needs to feel the hairs being stimulated again after the trap is closed, otherwise it won’t register the item as food and reopen the trap after about 12 hours. So some guides say use a toothpick to stimulate it again once it’s closed. I try to massage the trap from the outside very gently to stimulate the hairs after a seal. I have two that will eat fine and two that kinda struggle. Depending what you’re feeding it you may have to soak the food first. You also want to be sure that whatever it’s eating is small enough that it can fit into its mouth completely. The trap needs to be able to close and make a seal. I’ve been using a mixture of fish food and the plants seem to enjoy it so far. The pruning is interesting. Idk how to explain it really. But the leaves will turn black and you literally like chop the head of the plant off at the neck so the healthy body can continue to photosynthesize. “The black part of the leaf is dead and not producing anything other than mold and fungi. So, with a sterilized razor ( clean with Meth. spirits and water), cut the little stem between the trap and leaf. As long as the humidity is not too high, and no presence of fungi or spores, then the cut shall heal quickly.” I think they stay pretty small cuz the traps die off after a certain amount of feedings. Like 3-5 feedings or so I guess. Been trying to figure out if you can increase the number of active traps just by alternating feedings or if there’s another set life span. They go dormant in the winter. So if it gets too cold it may go dormant. Apparently there’s all kinds of different varieties too. I’m not sure the ones from Walmart do it, but the mouths of the trap are supposed to turn more red depending on how much sun they get which I think is kinda cool. The ones I have haven’t turned red yet but they also get artificial light so i dont know if they would.

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  5. Payton

    I’m not a huge fan of live bugs. I read that using fish food or dried bloodworms is perfectly fine for your Venus fly trap. I hope this helps!

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    • RoseRed

      Thanks!

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