FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I am completely new to fly traps. This is a B-52 I got about mid may this year. It has had some good growth. I think I need to repot it into something larger/deeper sooner rather than later. It seems that using pure sphagnum moss is the way to go.

Also I am not sure what to do about the trap that are turning black. Should I cut them, change time or directness in the sun, or should I not be concerned at all?

Thanks for reading.

Also on a few of the pictures you can see one trap took too big of a bite on a lightning bug. It was still blinking when I came home that evening:). Just thought that was neat.

I wouldn't uproot, moss looks good. So take the whole thing out cup as one piece and place it in a bigger prepared pot.

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I don't see much cause for concern. It looks like it might be a little heat stressed if it has been very hot there, but it might just be old traps naturally dying back. You can do like uusa2000 says, but I would loosen up the moss when you take it out of the cup to make sure it blends and wicks well with the additional moss you put it into.

Also on a few of the pictures you can see one trap took too big of a bite on a lightning bug. It was still blinking when I came home that evening:). Just thought that was neat.

That's awesome! I'd like to see that.

I agree with the others. No need to uproot nor do I see anything that is concerning in terms of health. If you do want to repot it, just keep it in a bundley and put it in its new pot and level out the moss.

Looks good to me but a larger pot is always a good thing.

I feed mine so many lightning bugs this time of year they look like Christmas trees blinking at night.

nice looking flytrap there! for a first you seemed to have picked a winner. we purchased our first back in April and I've had to move the entire bundle of ours twice now (once to repot, and once due to a storm blowing them off the porch and around the yard two nights ago sigh)

they didn't even blink just moving the whole mass of LFSM along with the new stuff to level it out.

Thanks for all the info everyone. I like the idea of keeping it in its original bundle. It seemed very disruptive to completely remove it and re bundle it. I am glad to hear it doesn't seem to be in bad health. It is in direct sunlight for a good chunk of the day. By mid afternoon it is in the shade of our house.

So it is not necessary to trim the dying traps or not recommended?

It is really neat to see it with lightning bugs although we do not feed it much because it seems to catch more than enough bugs on its own.

I cut off what I believe was the flower stock and I read somewhere you can sometimes get that to start another plant if you place it into the substrate. Anyone have any luck with that?

Thanks again for the great information and for all the replies.

bencrawf wrote: I cut off what I believe was the flower stock and I read somewhere you can sometimes get that to start another plant if you place it into the substrate. Anyone have any luck with that?

I have had great luck with that. Usually you will not only just get one plant but several. I have never done this outside though. What I always do is cut off the stalk then cut off the flower buds and I lay it in long fiber sphagnum covering each cut end a tiny bit. Then I Ziploc bag the whole pot stick it under grow lights and wait.

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bencrawf wrote:It seemed very disruptive to completely remove it and re bundle it.

"disruptive" is the perfect choice of words.

bencrawf wrote:So it is not necessary to trim the dying traps or not recommended?

It's not necessary to trim anything off, and not recommended to trim anything until it's black and fully dehydrated. The only reason to usually trim is aesthetics.[/quote]
It is really neat to see it with lightning bugs although we do not feed it much because it seems to catch more than enough bugs on its own.

bencrawf wrote:I cut off what I believe was the flower stock and I read somewhere you can sometimes get that to start another plant if you place it into the substrate. Anyone have any luck with that?

Yes, it works! I've never had a very thin flower stalk strike, but the medium to large ones do frequently. The key is to not let them get dehydrated, particularly near the cut end. It works best in sphagnum moss IMO.

Big-Jack wrote:Looks good to me but a larger pot is always a good thing.

I feed mine so many lightning bugs this time of year they look like Christmas trees blinking at night.

Lightning bugs aren't toxic to vft? I've heard rumors

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uusa2000 wrote:

Big-Jack wrote:Looks good to me but a larger pot is always a good thing.

I feed mine so many lightning bugs this time of year they look like Christmas trees blinking at night.

Lightning bugs aren't toxic to vft? I've heard rumors

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Not in my experience. They do secrete a couple drops of something pungent when caught but I think that is to deter predators of the non plant variety. The chemicals they use to produce light don't seem to cause a poisonous effect either. In fact they seem to digest in the traps quickly and almost completely. Probably because they have such a soft exoskeleton.

What are lighting bugs are those fireflies? And are those toxic too?

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Fireflies are lightning bugs. Just a regional thing I believe.