• Venus flytraps are carnivorous plants, and feed on live insects such equally flies and spiders.
  • While Venus flytraps tin can exist grown indoors, they thrive outdoors in temperate climates.
  • Venus flytraps prefer nutrient-poor soil and staying consistently moist.
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As the most well-known carnivorous found, the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a unique, frail, and interesting houseplant with a specific care routine. Dissimilar other plants, cannibal plants require supplemental feeding in the form of small-scale live critters such as flies, spiders, and wasps.

Daniela Ribbecke, carnivorous constitute expert at California Carnivores, shares tips and facts about the hungry Venus flytrap so you lot can feel confident caring for yours.

Identifying a Venus flytrap

The Venus flytrap is distinguished by its clusters of half-moon-shaped leaves lined with eyelash-like teeth called cilia. These leaves open to prove a cherry inner surface laced with sweet nectar that lures insects. They're covered with modest "trigger hairs." These cause the leaves to snap shut, interlocking the cilia, and trapping its casualty.

Feeding

Venus flytraps demand live prey because movement triggers digestion.
Beatrice Murch/Getty Images

You might be used to feeding your houseplants by fertilizing them, only Venus flytraps crave a more pet-similar care with regular insect and arachnid feedings. Outdoors, your Venus flytrap volition consume live critters such as flies, wasps, spiders, grasshoppers, and even slugs.

"If you lot feed a Venus flytrap something inert, it is unlikely to digest properly and will often pop open again afterwards a day without absorbing whatever nutrients," says Ribbecke. "It requires the movement of the live bug to stimulate digestion. If grown inside, you lot tin supplement them past feeding i live mealworm to just ane trap, once a week."

If you lot're unsure if your Venus flytrap is eating and digesting its prey, Ribbecke suggests keeping a shut eye on your plant and observing its feeding habits.

"When an insect triggers two hairs or ane hair twice, like the double click of a mouse, within 20 seconds, the trap is triggered to quickly shut effectually the prey," says Ribbecke. "As the insect wiggles in the closed trap, the plant will release digestive acids and enzymes to liquefy the insect. In 4-ten days the trap volition reopen and merely the exoskeleton will remain, which may lure in another predatory bug, thinking it has an easy meal!"

Water

Venus flytraps are bog plants, meaning they are semiaquatic and naturally abound in or around a wetland. Considering of this, Ribbecke says, flytraps ever want to exist sitting in a saucer of two to three inches of h2o to mimic their swamp origins. Ensure that the pot your flytrap is in has a drainage hole before placing it in the saucer.

"Ane big fob to successfully growing cannibal plants is water quality," says Ribbecke. "They require distilled or reverse osmosis or rainwater. These types of water have little to no dissolved salts and minerals which, when built upwardly in the soil, will kill a carnivorous plant."

Information technology's important to keep your Venus flytrap consistently moist — never soggy and never stale out. Avert flooding the traps and change the water in the saucer regularly. To prevent root rot, take the potted plant out of the saucer for a few hours daily.

Potting and fertilizer

Venus flytraps thrive in nutrient-poor soil.
Chanyanuch Duangkaew / EyeEm/Getty Images

Fertilizing your houseplants is ordinarily a must in their growing seasons, but Venus flytraps and other carnivorous plants abound and thrive from their specific feedings and types of soil.

"Cannibal plants evolved to trap bugs to get the nutrients they needed, like nitrogen, meaning they require nutrient-poor soils like peat moss," says Ribbecke.

A soil mixture of i part peat moss and one part perlite will provide adept aeration and drainage for your Venus flytrap. Repot your plant once a year to promote potent roots, and never use traditional houseplant potting mix or fertilizer.

Temperature and light

Despite their wispy appearance, Venus flytraps are hardy plants that tin survive in temperatures as low as twenty degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 110 for brief periods. Ribbecke also reminds the importance of a winter dormancy period.

"These are temperate plants that need to exist exposed to temperatures of 50s and 60s in the winter," says Ribbecke. "If you lot live in an area that is regularly over 90, it would be best to protect your flytraps from the full intensity of the afternoon sun and I would recommend growing them in full morn sunday only."

Because of their place of origin, Venus flytraps enjoy growing outdoors, where feeding comes naturally and full sunlight is plenty. To grow your flytrap indoors, Ribbecke recommends a abound light set to a 12 hour day length, placed about 6 to ten inches higher up the constitute.

"Venus flytraps are found but in the coastal evidently of southeastern North Carolina and extreme northeastern South Carolina," says Ribbecke. "Many are surprised to learn that these are non tropical plants and they actually do best outdoors if possible with full sun, good airflow, and access to lots of live prey."

Common problems

The Venus flytrap's carnivorous nature might lead to assumptions that it will eat just about any bug. However, some insects and pests can actually be harmful to your plant.

"Carnivorous plants, unfortunately, cannot swallow bugs similar mites, thrips, aphids, or mealy bugs," says Ribbecke. "Venus flytraps are most likely to be attacked by mites or aphids, which love fresh leap growth." Ribbecke recommends Accept Downwardly Garden Spray for aphids, and a miticide for mites.

To prevent common pests and diseases, proceed your flytrap'south soil at a consistent wet level, never soggy, and make sure it gets plenty of sunlight.

Should I permit my Venus flytrap blossom?

Venus flytraps flower, merely it can exhaust the plant.
Malisa Nicolau/Getty Images

Information technology's a lesser-known fact that Venus flytraps flower small white flowers yr after year. Letting a Venus flytrap flower can frazzle the plant, becoming sluggish and droopy one time the flowers have bloomed.

"If you lot have a larger flytrap, you can let information technology bloom. If information technology is smaller than three inches or then, I recommend pinching off the flowers before they become tall," says Ribbecke. "Flowering usually diverts energy from making the traps, so unless yous want to propagate your institute from seeds, focus on more than plentiful traps by trimming the flowers."

Insider'southward takeaway

Venus flytraps may have an unusual look and reputation, but they are fun and easy to intendance for carnivorous plants. With consequent moisture, nutrient-poor soil, full sun, and access to the right insects and arachnids, your Venus flytrap tin become a special and singled-out addition to your constitute family.

Daniela is a freelance author and editor who has written for The Kitchn, Apartment Therapy, and local San Diego lifestyle publications. She is a Chicana from Los Angeles living in San Diego.