The biological name of a venus flytrap plant is Dionaea muscipula. It is a carnivorous plant that is native to the subtropical wetlands. This plant gathers its nutrients like other plants from the soil and the environment. Since they live in typical poor soil, they are healthier if they feed on insects.
The Venus flytrap can be used to control flies because it is a carnivorous plant that feeds on insects. It produces a sweet juice that attracts insects. When the flies crawl or land on it, the plant folds its leaves to trap and digest them.
Fruit flies, mosquitoes, and houseflies are some of the flying insects that a Venus flytrap will feed on actively. This plant will also feed on crawling insects like ants and spiders. It is important to keep a Venus flytrap plant indoors when you want to control insects naturally without insecticides.
Venus Fly Trap for Controlling Indoor Insects
The Venus flytrap plant can be grown indoors to kill both flying and crawling insects at home. Since they are not large plants, they do well in pots, saucers, or water trays.
Place it in areas where there is light and ensure that they are always moist. Those plants may sometimes be sensitive to hot or low indoor temperature and the first sign will be a change in the color of the leaves. It is okay to pluck any leaves that are turning yellow or black to keep them healthy.
In most cases, the Venus flytrap food is nothing requiring human intervention. The plant is self-feeding and can attain necessary nutrients from the insects it traps.
The advantage of keeping it well maintained indoors is that it will not spare any insects that land on it. The venus plant will trap bugs that are attracted to light at night and that is why it’s a good idea to place it near a bulb at night.
When feeding Venus fly trap, never use any fertilizer through the roots. In case the plant is being grown in insect free areas, one ought to get some live insects for it. Natural insect digestion is the best fertilizer for the Venus fly trap plant.
However, those plants can go up to a maximum of 2 months without taking any insects. This is good natural sustenance for them because that is a long period. They cannot lack any insect that will be attracted to the sweet nectar they produce for all those days.
Can You Feed a Venus Fly Trap Dead Bugs
No, you should never feed your Venus flytrap plant with dead bugs unless they are freshly killed. If you have just killed the bugs, then it is okay because they will still provide the necessary nutrients. However, do not pick dead insects that have been laying for a while when feeding them.
Their digestive system only allows for live insects and dead ones should be avoided as they may cause the plants to rot. The plants do not need any food in winter.
However, do not remove dead insect bodies from the Venus fly trap plant because they will aid in attracting other insects like ants which will still be eaten by the plant.
How Many Bugs Can The Venus Fly Trap Eat?
1 trap can have 1 insect in a week. So the total number of insects that a Venus flytrap can eat in a week depends on the number of traps it has and the size of an insect.
If you feed it something like a grasshopper, it will take up to 4 days to completely digest. This is why 1 trap is estimated to have 1 insect in a week. So if the Venus flytrap plant has 8 traps on it, it will eat about 8 – 12 bugs in a week depending on the size and how healthy they are.
In most cases, a standard plant will have a minimum of 4 traps and a maximum of 20 traps grown on it if the environment and the soil are well maintained.
This means that when a Venus flytrap plant has 4 traps, it will eat a maximum of 4 insects in a week. If the insects have fewer organic nutrients, they may open up hunting for more.
This means that the size of a bug also matters. For example, when a cockroach crawls on a potted plant like the venus fly trap and it geats eaten, the plant will stay for a week before eating another insect.
How Does The Venus Fly Trap Plant Kill Insects?
The plants are at their best during summer where they catch quite a lot of the insects due to their maximum size. These plants come in varying colors and sizes. The plants require to be placed in a sunny position.
The plant consists of between four to seven leaves which grow from a short stem. Its leaf blade has two subdivisions. These include a pair of some terminal lobes and a photosynthetic part which is flat and heart shaped.
The edges of the leaves produce some secretions while the red pigmentation on the leaves attracts the flies through sight. The leaf is also the trap.
The plant’s trapping mechanism is quite advanced and the fly can tell whether a stimulus is from a living organism or not.
Its cilia which are thorn-like protrusions tend to mesh together once the prey gets onto the leaf. Those also prevent the trapped prey from escaping.
When there is no way out for the prey, the plant continues to be stimulated. It is then that the lobes of the leaves will fuse. This helps to seal the trap as well as form an enclosure to enhance digestion as well as absorption of the nutrients that come along.
The Venus fly trap plant is easy to grow since it requires minimal maintenance as well. Purchasing one from a trusted store will see to it that the plant lives long enough and you can enjoy its beauty. Here is a video on how the Venus flytrap controls flies by killing and eating them:
Can The Venus Fly Trap Plant Fail to Kill Insects?
In most cases the Venus fly trap plant will fail to control insects at home when it is flowering. However, this depends on it’s health at the flowering stage.
The Venus fly trap flower is produced once per year. During the spring, the plant will produce a few flower stalks from its centre.
These grow up to 24 inches long. Since the plant is a rosette which means it consists of various leaves emanating from a central point, flowering happens to be the last act the plant does before dying.
When this happens, if the plant is strong enough and in good health, it will continue to survive trap and control insects. If it is sickly, young and not well fed, it will end up dying.
Attacks from aphids and whiteflies can drain their leaves. This will result into yellow weak leaves that may start falling off. To identify aphids and whiteflies of your plants, check under the leaves for both adults and their eggs.
When Does the Venus Fruit Fly Die?
If not well taken care of, the Venus fly trap plant could fail to perform its roll of killing insects meaning that they will not control them if that is why you keep them.
The plant requires both the sun and winter to prosper. The Venus fly trap flower is an attractive one. Just like other carnivorous plants, the flowers open up to approximately an inch in diameter.
Due to the energy demands that the plant is faced with, any plants that are too young, recently transplanted, sickly or weak should not be allowed to flower.
This is because most of the stored food will be used in the processes making the plant even weaker. Only allow healthy and mature Venus fly trap plants to flower.
When these plants are allowed to flower, pollination will later take place and some small black seeds that are shiny will form. These if sown will develop into seedlings within four to eight weeks. After this, it could take a number of years for the given seedlings to mature.
As such, a lot of patience is required when raising Venus fly trap seedling from the seeds. Most growers prefer to use leaf cuttings, tissue culture and bulb division as the preferred method of propagation.
The Venus fly trap flower when they appear puts a lot of energy to the flowering process. Since this drains away a lot of the plant’s vigor, most growers will prefer to cut the flower stalk before it is an inch long.
For plants that are less than one year old, it is important to cut off the flowers. If this is not done, plants that are weak may end up dying.
Venus Fly Trap Seedling
One of the methods of propagation which could be adopted for various plants is through the use of seedlings. Growing seedlings for the Venus fly trap from seeds takes long. It will take the seeds two to three years.
Seeds are obtained when one leaves the plant to flower. These will emerge in the seed pods from where one can obtain them by splitting it up. One can then dry the black shiny seeds and sow them.
The seed will then germinate and grow on the surface of the soil. Within no time, some thin roots and two tiny seedling leaves will appear.
The leaves that follow will be capable of trapping and tend to get buried deep in the soil after which they will grow out to the surface. The base of the leaves is used to store food while the part above the ground attracts light for photosynthesis.
The Venus fly trap plant is an attractive herbivorous plant. Keeping this plant is easy as the Venus fly trap feeding and soil are not demanding. One can decide if they want the plant to flower or not.
They can also be grown outside. These do not require much care. The plants are tough enough during winter but to make it last over winter easily, one is not supposed to feed it or put it in warm areas.
Venus Fly Trap Soil
Just like any other plant, the Venus fly trap has specific requirements for it to grow. These plants are not big and can thus be grown indoors in posts. They also do well outdoors. To begin with, one has to prepare it’s soil.
It is recommended that one uses three parts of Sphagnum peat for every one part of lie free sand. To achieve maximum growth, the plant should be re-potted every two years.
The plants do not do well with house plant compost containing lime or even fertilizer. Using the right compost is important since a lot of nitrogen could burn the roots.
Once the soil is ready, propagation can be done through whichever means one chooses. Sowing seedlings takes a long time of up to three years before the plant matures. It is possible to use the leaves as well. The seeds have to mature before sowing.
With the correct type of soil combination, the plant remains healthy. As a result, it will continuously produce new leaves thus replacing any old ones that die. As such, the plant can live for as long as the soil conditions allow.
Can The Venus Fly Trap Plant Grow Anywhere?
This plant survives best on specific soil and food meaning that it does not just grow anywhere. If the environment is not suitable, the Venus flytrap flower will not get to its mature stage.
To achieve this, the plant catches its prey using some trapping structure that is formed at the terminal portion of the leaves. It has some tiny hairs on the inner surface which help to trigger this reaction.
As an insect passes close to the plant and touches the hairs, the leaves of the plant close up thus trapping the given insect.
This though only happens if a second hair is touched within 20seconds of the first one being touched. This helps the plant to avoid wasting energy by trapping things with no nutritional value.
Big Venus Fly Trap and Small Venus Fly Trap
There is only one species of the Venus fly trap plant but there are variations to it. The big Venus fly trap also known as the big mouth Venus fly trap is a monstrous Venus plant with chunky traps of up to five centimeters if given necessary optimum conditions.
This plant does not only have a large trap but also has a deep red centre that serves to attract insects like fruit flies and house flies from a distance. It grows quickly and clumps up fast.
The leaf stalks are short and it is on their end that the trap is hosted. Since it is rare for tall traps to form, it becomes easy for the plant to form a dense clump of the trapping leaves.
In making purchases, the big Venus fly trap plant is classified as extra large. In most cases its demand is higher than the supply. As winter approaches, the plant starts to become dormant.
Its leaves darken and there are more traps produced. During winter, the leaves are more ground hugging and will appear less attractive and smaller. Since this plant is a self feeding one, there isn’t much requirement in keeping it.
When watering the plants, ensure it is soft water. Rainwater tends to be the best since the plant is sensitive to lime. Where this kind of water is not available, settle for some filtered or distilled. The plants can stand in water all through but during winter they should just be damp.
The plant requires both the sun and winter to prosper. The Venus fly trap flower is an attractive one. Just like other carnivorous plants, the flowers open up to approximately an inch in diameter.
Plants like Venus Fly Trap
There are many plants that are like the Venus plant. These gain their nutrients by consuming living organisms. The trapping mechanisms may at times differ though.
Some of these include sundews, the rainbow plant and the water wheel plant. These plants are mostly found in areas with nutritional deficiency thus prompting the plants to survive through other means.
There are different places where one can get a Venus fly trap plant for sale. Some plant stores specialize in propagation of different species. From these points, you can get a good quality plant.
These stores will also give you instructions on how to care for the plants. It is also possible to get these online. Some stores can deliver the plants to you if you purchase them online. Walk in stores though maybe better as you can compare different plants and settle for the best.
Planting a Venus flytrap plant is no big deal. One should make sure they make use of the right soil while at it.
It is also important to use clean water as this is mostly the type in which it does best. Once these are taken care of, one can rest easy as the trap is self-feeding.
Reference:
- College of Natural Resources News: Five Things About Venus Flytraps – NC State University
- Wikipedia: Venus flytrap – The free encyclopedia