Feeding the Venus Flytrap: Important Tips for Beginners

Venus flytraps are a bit scary, but somehow also very interesting. After all, it's not every day you see a plant eating insects. But how does that even work?

Beetles, flies, isopods, spiders and ants: If the size is right, the carnivorous Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is not particularly picky about its prey. As the saying goes: hunger drives it in. But how does this amazing carnivorous plant, also known as a carnivore, actually catch its prey and what do you have to watch out for when feeding it?

The natural catch mechanism

Venus Flytraps catch their prey with the leaves, which snap shut like trapping irons. The snap traps consist of the heavily thickened petiole and two oval to round leaf blades. These are bent outwards when open. In the center of the leaf blade are some hair-fine bristles. The edge is equipped with dense bristles.

Once the leaves are fully grown, they open up and the insides take on an intense red color when exposed to sunlight. The Venus flytrap gives insects the illusion of a flower and reinforces this impression by secreting a sweet, nectar-like liquid.

As soon as an insect touches the feeler bristles twice within 20 seconds, the trap snaps shut. This works similar to folding a soft contact lens and only takes a fraction of a second. The bristles on the edge of the leaf blade interlock.

Lucky again - tiny ones are undesirable

Very small insects that would not be worth the effort to digest can crawl out between the bristles. Larger, usable insects are now literally trapped and are digested in a process that takes about ten days. Once the digestion process is complete, the trap opens again and the unusable remains, such as the chitin shell, fall to the ground. Each snap latch can open and close up to seven times. After that, the catch leaf dies off and is replaced.

Feeding - not necessary, but exciting

Venus Flytraps catch without your helpenough loot. However, if you would like to initiate the exciting spectacle yourself, there is nothing to be said against it. Please note the following tips:

do not do regular finger tests:

Don't touch the traps. Each snap on the finger means the plant has to snap less to catch real prey. But you can afford a one-time test to satisfy understandable curiosity.

do not feed dead food:

Don't feed dead insects or leftovers from lunch. The trap also closes over a dead beetle or a piece of schnitzel. But if there is no movement, digestion does not start. After a day at the latest, the trap opens again and the plant has wasted a lot of energy.

Do not feed very large or small insects:

The Venus flytrap's optimal prey length is about a third of the length of a snaptrap. Very small insects will escape through the bristles. Very large insects, such as a stag beetle, are often strong enough to fight their way out of the trap. In addition, the digestive capacity of each trap is limited. In the worst case, a large insect will begin to rot and the mold will spread to the plant. So use a sense of proportion.