How do I properly care for my venus fly trap and other carnivorous plants?

[Mk]

Somebody gifted me a venus fly trap, and I have not been taking good (any) care of it other than giving it distilled water and putting it in some spagum... uh, do not know how to spell, peat moss type growing medium. It's amazingly still alive and green after several weeks. I want to take better care of it, and get some more carnivorous plants. I've read stuff online, but do any of you have any ideas or tips or something? I'm sure I'll post pictures in this thread later once I've got them going.

 

[Gokul43201]

You should take it to Cleveland on Wednesday to watch the next Yankees-Indians game. If it turns out anything like the last game there, your plant (have you named it yet?) will have itself a real party!

PS: Ooh wait...the Indians nearly have the game!

 

[russ_watters]

If they catch stink bugs, I'll have to get me one.

 

[Moonbear]

Maybe it's feeding itself. If there are enough insects getting into your place, it might already be feasting. Or, you can give it to Evo to keep in her bedroom to catch whatever is biting her at night.

 

[Evo]

Be careful what you feed it, if you give it meat that rots before the plant can digest it, the "mouth" will rot.

 

[~christina~]

Omg..you feed the plants raw meat?
I guess that's a alternative to flies...

I do know that the Venus fly traps enjoy moist environments though hence the cover that comes with the plant.

Other plants that are carnivourous but don't necessarily need the extremely humid environment of the venus fly trap is the Pitcher plant. I've seen these in the store and they are quite interesting. I've allways wanted to tip one over and see how much digestive juices would come out but I'd get into trouble if I did that around the store..hehe...

 

[turbo]

Many pet stores sell live bugs like crickets and mealworms. Bugs that will fit entirely within the trap and are still alive are ideal. Carnivorous plants are generally found in swampy places with poor acidic soil, so they really need to eat fresh bugs to get nutrients. We don't have flytraps in Maine, but we do have sundews, which are also interesting. They are slower to act than flytraps, but are pretty effective bug-catchers. There's a little clump of them growing on the bank of a pond where I fish from time to time, and I like to check up on them to see what kinds of bugs they're catching.

 

[Evo]

I used to swat flys and feed mine fresh flies.

 

[Astronuc]

One summer, I adopted a large spider (at the place where I was working) and fed it flies that I caught. I had to do clean up around a lunch table where I worked, and invariably flies would land on the table or near by. So I got very good at slowly moving my hand into position and then quickly sweeping up the fly as it took off. Sometimes I'd get two flies. Then I walked over to the spider web and through the flies onto the web, usually near the mouth. The spider would often rush out and get the fly (or nearest). The number of flies decreased thoughout the summer.

So catch some flies (or other insects) and drop them into the fly trap. They can go quite some time though without food.

 

[brewnog]

Don't close the trap artificially unless you're putting food in its mouth. Don't feet it with ordinary plant food; if you find that extra food is needed then you can buy carnivorous nutrient from a garden centre.

Other than that, keep him moist and feed him flies!

 

[Gale]

I have a venus fly trap that I love and nearly died a few times. Its now thriving and has even sprouted another little plant in its pot. I've never fed it any meat, as its supposed to attract its own. They don't require a lot anyway, and if you over feed its detrimental to the plant.

More than anything, they require a lot of water. I water mine every day. When I nearly killed it one winter, by leaving it on the window sill when it was way too cold outside, I covered it in a plastic bag, and kept the soil moist at all times. The soil should never be dry. Also, mine grew very large quite fast, so I made sure to transplant it to appropriate sized pots whenever it was necessary. At one point I also needed to add a stake to the pot because the leaves were getting so heavy. I'm of the opinion that my particular plant also enjoyed when I sang to it and played guitar.

 

[J77]

I always keep about a half cm of water in the container the pot sits in -- and never feed it, either flies or food -- though it's tempting...

I don't think they really eat many flies -- they just look cool