Expert: Christopher Littrell - 5/21/2007

Question
I have a flytrap purchased last year that I placed into a garage over the winter to allow for dormancy. It is now back on my eastern facing windowsill on a bed of moist pebbles and has sent up a few new shoots and traps. I tried to show my 8 yr old how it eats, and caught a small spider and placed it in the trap. Unfortunately I had to essentially kill the spider to place it in the trap. The trap closed nicely, but the next day the trap opened and the spider was still inside, undigested. I read that movement may be needed for the trap to initiate the digestion process. Is that the reason my trap didn't "eat" the spider? And if so, how can I feed the plant indoors since insects will not go into a trap willingly and I don't want them crawling around my house!

Thanks for any info on this interesting plant!

Answer
Hello Zach,

Good going with the dormancy and growing of your Venus Flytrap.

Venus Flytraps do indeed like their "food" still living when they catch it. That is how the trap knows that it has caught a live insect rather than a drop of water or leaf from another plant. The trigger hairs on the inner leaf must be continuously triggered to induce further leaf action.

Flies, roaches, beetles, and sometimes, spiders, will be attracted to the traps for varying reasons, mostly nectar for flies and other insects that like sweets. Spiders seem to like the half-closed leaf as it makes a cozy seeming home apparently. In any case, if you want to hand feed the plant and can only acquire a dead insect or spider, place it in the leaf, trigger the leaf to close, then use a hair discarded on a hairbrush, a thin wire, or a needle to lightly brush the inner surface of the trap between the interlocking teeth a few times to simulate movement enough to continuously trip the trigger hairs. After a minute or so of this activity, the trap will probably be stimulated enough to enter what is called the "narrowing phase" in order to clamp down on and digest the captured prey. This takes about 30 minutes to completely initiate and will be evident when the trap closes completely and the teeth stand up rather than interlock. Make sure you only use a freshly killed or still living insect and never one killed by insecticides in any case.

You might move the plant to a good south facing window to give it even more light. Venus Flytraps need full sunlight to really remain healthy, making them poor houseplants. If you can, after the plant has been in a south window for a week or so, move it out to a sunny patio or location protected from animals. At first some leaf burn might be experienced, however, you will see how much faster and healthy seeming the plant is in a few weeks. Those in their natural North Carolina bogs live in full sun as they have no shade plants over them. They are real monsters compared with the plants we growers often try to cultivate. Also, if you have a humidity dome on the plant, you can slowly remove it over the course of two weeks to harden the plant to lower humidity and that will make the plant grow stouter and healthier leaves. To do so, brace the dome up a fraction of an inch or punch holes in it every three days over the course of two weeks. At the end of two weeks, the dome should no longer hold humidity and you can remove it. This will allow you to place it in higher intensity light without cooking the plant. High humidity is experienced by the plants in the bog, but they can adapt very well to low humidity.

Keep up the good work and your plant will thrive.

Christopher