Expert: Christopher Littrell - 5/28/2007

Question
We own two venus flytraps that we believe are two different types of the plant.  Our plants live in a terrarium with soil that is mixed of perlite and peat moss. They are also in a place where they get sunlight for about 4-5 hours a day. The first one we purchased who we later named Kooma is low to the ground and lots of small heads, and Chiyo who is much taller with only 5 heads that are at the ends of very long leaves that stick straight up in the air.  We wanted to feed our pets to help them get extra nutrients to grow so we went to the local pet store and purchased a bag of small crickets.  Both of the plants ate the small crickets, however all of the heads on Chiyo that ate a cricket and were starting to digest turned black and dyed while with Kooma they are fine.  Is there something wrong with my plant? Is it ok to continue feeding our flytraps crickets? Thank you so much for your help!

Answer
Hello Lexi and Ollie,

1.  Both of your Venus Flytraps are the same species, they grow low to the ground when the light photoperiod is short during fall and winter and grow upright in spring and summer. You might see some Flytraps that are colored differently or of different sizes, but they are all the same, like all dog breeds are the same, they just look different.

2.  The fact that one plant is growing low to the ground with small traps, and the other is growing only a few long tall leaves is due to low light levels and short photoperiods. If you give the plants more light in both intensity and hours, they would both grow short, stout, upright leaves with larger traps.

3.  Feeding carnivorous plants that do not get enough light is like trying to feed someone that is starving with only vitamin pills. They would still starve. In this case, you need to give the plants a lot more light and stop trying to feed them until they are healthy. They eat light and water, insects are merely vitamins for them. When the traps on the Flytraps die off, it is because the plants are not able to get enough energy to digest insects. That energy comes from sunlight.

4.  A terrarium is also one of the worst ways to grow Venus Flytraps. They really do not need high humidity all that much and cannot get enough light in a terrarium since they would cook if you put it in sunlight. In addition, a terrarium does not easily allow the plants to go dormant in winter and has poor drainage.

First off, slowly adapt the plants to low humidity by opening the terrarium a little every three days until the cover is completely off at the end of two weeks. When the cover is off, the plants will be adapted to low humidity and can be repotted in a regular 5 inch pot with drainage holes and a large tray of water under it. The soil you are using sounds good, just make sure it does not contain any fertilizer additives. Once they are in pots, you can place them in a window that gets morning sun and lots of light all day for one week. Next week, place them in a window that gets bright, direct sun all day long. After a week or so of growing them in that window, move them outside if your weather permits. The main thing is to give the plants a slow adaptation to high light levels as they have lost their tan being indoors, so strong sun would burn their leaves if they are put out too fast. Venus Flytraps are tolerant of weather from about 30-100 degrees in pots. They are like garden plants in that they require full sun to really survive. Indoors, they tend to slowly weaken and eventually die off after a couple of years unless you can put the equivalent of a 400 watt metal halide lamp over them. A window is not full sun, windows block a lot of the useful light spectrum that some plants, like Venus Flytraps need.

Venus Flytraps really do not need to eat insects to survive. They also catch plenty of insects when they are not in a terrarium, so you don't have to buy crickets to feed them. It is a win-win situation getting them out of the terrarium and into strong light.

Keep up the good care and your Flytraps will start growing right again.

Christopher