FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Sorry for posts so close together :/
I only got one response from my last post, so I thought maybe more people would read this.

So since its still cold out here, in Kentucky, bugs haven't really come out to play with my plants yet. Since I bet my plants were hungry after a long dormancy period, I came up with an idea: I bought wax worms (aka fishing bait lol) to feed my Venus flytraps, and my pitcher plant. Are these a good source of nutrients to the plants, or should I buy a different kind of bugs. I thought that unlike crickets, the wax worms wouldn't jump all over the place, and are relatively weak.

Unfortunately, after feeding some of the wax worms to my Venus flytrap, I found that after the trap had closed around them, that some had managed to force their way out of the traps! I decided that if this continues to happen, I will have to puncture the skin of the wax worm with a needle, gently, to merely incapacitate it, and not kill it, so that when I put it in a trap, it will squirm and not escape. I have not had any problems feeding them to my pitcher plant, which drowns them almost immediately.

Any hints or tips?

If you go with crickets there are a couple tricks you can use to make things easier.

First put them in a container in the freezer for a minute or two or in the fridge for several minutes. This slows them down to the point that they really don't move but once they warm up they will be active again.

Second, if you pinch the back legs with either your finger nails or a pair of tweezers above the joint they pull off almost instantly. This will keep them from kicking around in the trap.

Otherwise you can try pre killing the worms and after the trap closes just gently massage is from the outside overy 5-10 minutes for an hour or so to simulate moving prey.

Lastly you can just not feed it. Growth may be a little slower but the plant itself won't be any less healthy.

Gee, thanks, parker. Now I know I'm the most squeamish guy I've ever met. Poor crickets.

By the way, the Carnivorous Plant Nursery sells wingless fruit flies and fruit fly culture media.

(http://www.carnivorousplantnursery.com).

Hi!

Wax worm isn't ok!! I've fed my VFT, I also pre-killed them but after a week all the feeded traps started to turn brown and decay. Maybe because of the fat.

Maybe You should wait until the flies hatch out then You'll have lillte flies and they are more manageable and won't escape.

Bill McEnaney wrote:Gee, thanks, parker. Now I know I'm the most squeamish guy I've ever met. Poor crickets.

By the way, the Carnivorous Plant Nursery sells wingless fruit flies and fruit fly culture media.

(http://www.carnivorousplantnursery.com).

I have snakes and spiders and worked in a snake shop in college so pulling the legs off of crickets is probably one of the nicer things I've had to do.

parker679 wrote:I have snakes and spiders and worked in a snake shop in college so pulling the legs off of crickets is probably one of the nicer things I've had to do.

Aaaaaaaaaaah! Years ago, when I visited found a cage full of white rabbits near a boa's aquarium, I needed to leave right away because my family raised 10 baby ones when I was a boy. I don't mind when my plants catch their lunch, but I'm too wimpy to feed them live food.

At least let them sniff some nitrous oxide to knock them unconscious or to let them die laughing.

Nitrous oxide is laughing gas and an anesthetic.

Bill McEnaney wrote:

parker679 wrote:I have snakes and spiders and worked in a snake shop in college so pulling the legs off of crickets is probably one of the nicer things I've had to do.

Aaaaaaaaaaah! Years ago, when I visited found a cage full of white rabbits near a boa's aquarium, I needed to leave right away because my family raised 10 baby ones when I was a boy. I don't mind when my plants catch their lunch, but I'm too wimpy to feed them live food.

At least let them sniff some nitrous oxide to knock them unconscious or to let them die laughing.

Nitrous oxide is laughing gas and an anesthetic.

LoL, nitrous wouldn't be a bad idea. Well for the plants at least, for the spiders they prefer something that moves to initiate their feed response. I understand the feeling you have though. Currently I use frozen mice for the snakes so I don't have to worry about killing them myself anymore.

For cold blooded things I hear the freezer is actually a pretty painless and efficient means of "putting them to sleep". Essentially their processes slow down gradually until they go dormant, then they eventually pass away but are unconscious by that point.

Well, parker, I probably won't adopt any snakes, even if the freezer is the ideal place to force a coldblooded animal to hibernate. Since I feel hyper-empathy I probably couldn't watch a snake kill any other animal. I usually need to avoid hospitals, even when I would love to visit someone there, because I faint when I see someone in severe physical paint. I doubt that I'd faint when I watched you amputate a cricket's back legs, but I'd rather not find out whether I'm right. I'd be delighted to befriend you. If I do that, you better not feed the snake(s) when I'm around, though. Then again, maybe I'll be brave when you buy the smelling salts.