A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Venus Fly Trap

Hi everyone.
I am new to the site and hope this will help me grow to be a better gardener.

I have just received my first Venus Fly Trap plant as a gift on Wednesday last week. It was looking good until Sunday. Sunday I notices one of the traps died. I have not seen any traps eat anything yet. I thought it might need food and put a bit in each trap. (I did read that hamburger is bad.) I could not get any of them to close. Why is it dying? Why won't any traps close? What should I be doing or not doing?

Any advise would be great because I want it to thrive.

Thanks

I've had a Venus Fly Trap for about a year now and it's getting pretty huge. What do you have your Venus Fly Trap in? They grow in swampy areas where it is humid. What I did was got a fish bowl and filled about half with soil and transplanted it into the bowl. You can't water the Venus Fly Trap with regular tap water. You need to use distilled water. I set it right in my window where it can get humid inside the bowl. To feed my fly trap I go out back in my garden and find some earwigs, beetles and other bugs. The traps only close about 3-4 times and then the life of that trap is up. It will start to turn black and die but as that one is dying a new trap will begin to sprout up out of the middle of the plant. To tell if your plant is healthy you will look at the inside of the trap, if it is a pinkish red it's doing just fine. Now these plants will grow a stem and flower. I was told not to let your fly trap flower or it will weaken the rest of the plant. So if you see a stem starting cut it. Hmmm...did I forget anything?

Hope this helps

That's pretty good JustAGirl I normally feed mine softer bugs without shells, like flies, crickets, and stuff like that. avoid caterpillers and grubs because they can squeeze their way out and even eat the plant >.o Also, try not to feed the trap anything larger than 1/3 the size of the trap. Anything larger may not let the trap close all the way, and the digestive stuff could cause the bug to rot and cause disease. That's the same with hamburger meat >.o its got diseases in it that show up after its been sitting in the trap for a while.

Hmmmmm oh ya ^.^ and sun = red traps! Just don't let it get direct sun. If it gets direct sun, the terarrium will magnify the light and fry the plant. *thinks* so ya ^.^ hope that helps!

Oh! and traps die naturally. On average, you won't find a plant with more than 8 traps on it. Mine has 12, but i'm special i guess lol.

~Phoebe

Nako

Interesting I didn't know about the 8 traps normally on a plant. Well then I must be special as well. My plant has 13 plus two new ones poping up..which I suppose means 2 are about to die? The traps have gotten pretty big.

Actually, I still have it in the container it came in. I also have it sitting on a terracotta dish with water in it. I did use tap water though. Could that be what's making it unhappy? Can it be saved or is it too late? It's by the window, but not in direct sun. I didn't even know they flowered.

Thanks to everyone for the input.

Very cool JustAGirl! You might have two plants eventually My traps are about an inch long, and are putting out the summer leaves right now *the long skinny ones that stand up* But those are starting to lie down, so i think its gonna start putting out the lil ones soon.

Now, Edia, I think you can save it with some TLC ^.^ if you have dead leaves, clip the black parts off. As for keeping it in a terracotta dish, i'd advise against putting it in standing water >.o that could cause root rot from stagnant water. If the water were moving, then that'd be okay. But ya, i'd put pebbles in the terracotta dish, and put the flytrap pot on top of the lil pebbles. that'll create humidity, and keep the moss moist. That's another thing, keep the moss moist ^.^

good luck with that!
~Phoebe

Thanks! I'll pick up a container of distilled water after work today. I'll transplant it into a fish bowl tonight too and hope it has the will to live. By the way, do you have to feed each trap individually?

By the by, I stopped by your webshots,Phoebe. You have beautiful plants. I tried to have an air plant once. It was fine until I spritzed it. Then it died. Told you I'm bad at this plant thing.

Thank you Edia!!
When you repot it, make double sure not to disturbe the roots. You can probably just pack more sphagnum moss around the pot in the fish bowl, or carefully take the moss out of the pot, and put moss around that ^.^

Again, Good luck!
~Phoebe