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How to Feed a Venus Flytrap
How to Feed a Venus Flytrap. Venus Flytraps are a very interesting plant to have. They do eat insects and if you catch a bug, you can even feed it yourself. Children are especially fascinated with Venus Flytraps because of their carnivorous abilities. If you keep your Venus Flytrap outside it can catch its own food. However, if you keep it indoors...
Venus Flytraps are a very interesting plant to have. They do eat insects and if you catch a bug, you can even feed it yourself. Children are especially fascinated with Venus Flytraps because of their carnivorous abilities. If you keep your Venus Flytrap outside it can catch its own food. However, if you keep it indoors you will need to feed it yourself.
Things You'll Need
Bugs
Tweezers
Understand that Venus Flytraps get nutrition from their soil, water and light just like any other plant. They don't have to have a fresh bug every day to survive. However, feeding a bug to your plant every so often will be fun, educational and provide some extra nourishment to the Flytrap.
Feed your Venus Flytrap bugs or small larvae only. Food meant for humans or animals will kill the plant very quickly.
Hold a piece of food with a pair of tweezers. The bug can be alive or recently killed if you are afraid it will escape the plant before the trap closes. Gently put the bug inside of the trap and withdraw the tweezers when the trap begins to close, leaving the insect inside.
Give your Venus Flytrap food only in an open trap and once per week, at the most. You don't have to feed your plant anything but water in the soil; however, it will grow faster if you do take the time to feed it. You can feed each trap only once a month, or once a year if you wish.
Stimulate the trap to accept dead bugs, if this is what you have fed it. A trap has visible trigger hairs inside of it that can tell whether the food is alive or dead. If it decides the bug is dead, it will reopen in about a day and not digest the food. To stimulate the trigger hairs, immediately after giving the bug to your Venus Flytrap, insert something very thin into the trap between the cilia such as an unbent paperclip. Very gently touch a few of the hairs. This will make the plant think it has captured a live bug.
Tips & Warnings
Small caterpillars make a great food for Venus Flytraps. However, you must kill the caterpillar before feeding it to your plant or it will eat its way out.
Don't feed your Flytrap bugs with a tough exoskeleton, such as beetles. Also, stay away from moths and butterflies.
Don't give your plant any food that is larger than a third of the trap itself.
