Feeding Venus Flytrap

9/7/2014 VenusFlytrap.info - What and How do I Feed my Venus Fly Trap?

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Feeding Venus Flytraps

Should I Feed My Venus Flytrap?

ost people don't usually think in terms of feeding their plants,except to fertilize the soil they grow in. Don't do that withVenus Flytraps, because fertilizing the soil can kill them, but

on the other hand, placing some live prey into the jaws of the trap

Although Venus Flytraps do catch and digest insects and sometimes small animals (like verysmall frogs) they get most of their food and energy from the sun. Like other plants, VenusFlytraps photosynthesize, which means that their leaves convert sunlight (or artificial light) intosugars that they store in their rhizome (swollen leaf bases) underground or use to grow or to fueltheir continuous or periodic activities, including digesting insects.

However, although most of their food comes from the sun and Venus Flytraps do not need to befed, they do get a range of nutrients from the prey they catch that neither sunlight nor theirtypically very nutrient-poor soil provides, and can be healthier and grow larger, faster, when theyhave insect food as well as plenty of light. When placed outdoors, Venus Flytraps can and oftendo capture insects. So while it's damaging or even fatal to a Venus Flytrap to fertilize its soil orspray its leaves with fertilizer, it's OK to manually feed an insect to a Venus Flytrap every sooften.

What Should I Feed My Venus Flytrap?

Insects are best, and Venus Flytraps are accustomed to eating live prey. The motion of the insectinside the trap triggers the the closing mechanism and causes the trap of the Venus Flytrap toseal tightly before flooding the inside of the trap with an enzyme-rich fluid to digest the insectover the course of perhaps four to ten days.

Because a Venus Flytrap is triggered by movement, it can't tell the difference between a deadinsect and a rock. If what's inside the trap is not moving, the Venus Flytrap doesn't think that ithas caught anything of interest, and the trap opens again in a day or so. Therefore, if a personfeeds his or her Venus Flytrap a dead fly (which is fine) it may be necessary to gently massagethe outside surfaces of the trap three or more times, every twenty to thirty minutes or so, to



stimulate the trigger hairs inside and cause the trap to seal tightly and begin to digest the insect.If a live fly is placed inside the trap and the trap closes, the movement of the fly will cause thetrap to seal.

If one wishes to feed a fly to a Venus Flytrap, it can be helpful to chill (not freeze) the fly for afew minutes, in a jar inside a refrigerator for example, to make the fly sluggish, easier to handleand less likely to escape from either the human or the Venus Flytrap.

"Can I feed my Venus Flytrap hamburger?" No. The fat in meat will probably cause the trap ofa Venus Flytrap to turn black and die, and perhaps the entire leaf too. "What about other things?What about a tiny piece of dry old skin, a bit of scab, a cut fingernail, a booger?! A fewcrumbs of cake?" You can try lots of different types of "food items," but Venus Flytraps areprobably most happy with flying insects and some small non-flying creatures such asmealworms. If you do give your Venus Flytrap some "exotic" food, it might be best toexperiment on just one trap and wait to see the results, so that if what you have fed the VenusFlytrap gives it indigestion or has an adverse effect, it won't damage or kill the entire plant.

When or How Often Should I Feed My VenusFlytrap?

Healthy Venus Flytraps sometimes catch so many insects that most or even all of their traps areclosed. But when manually feeding Venus Flytraps, it's best to feed only one or two traps at atime. In addition, there are certain times or certain circumstances during which one should notfeed a Venus Flytrap.

A Venus Flytrap requires and expends some of its stored food to digest an insect. In most cases,what the Venus Flytrap gets in return (the nutrition from the digested parts of the insect) isgreater and more important to the plant (like certain minerals that are deficient in the soil) thanthe energy it uses to obtain that nutrition. But a sick or very small Venus Flytrap, or one that hasrecently been transplanted or is coping with various stressful conditions (too little water and toomuch heat for example, or too much water and too little light) can become overstressed if toomany of its traps are trying to digest insects at the same time. In those cases, it's often better notto feed a Venus Flytrap until it is healthy and vigorous again.

Don't feed a Venus Flytrap ifIt is weak or sickIt has been growing in conditions of too much water and too little sun, which

cause weak and spindly leaf growth and thin traps that are prone to blackeningand rot

It has recently been transplanted, its roots have not yet adjusted to the newsoil, and it is still adapting to new growing conditions

It appears to be under stress from any cause, including sunburn, salt burnfrom too high a TDS, etc.

In addition, Venus Flytraps usually don't eat much insect food during their yearly winterdormancy. The traps are usually very sluggish or don't close at all during dormancy, but the plant



still needs plenty of light, because while it may not trap much or any food, the leaves stillproduce food through photosynthesis (making sugars from sunlight) and stores that food allwinter in its rhizome underground, for a healthy reserve to use during its later rapid growth whenthe Venus Flytrap emerges from dormancy in the Spring.

Stephen Doonan, FlytrapRanch.com

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