FlyTrapCare Forums

Hey everyone. Was wondering how you feed your fly traps? Today I fed mine two earwigs, but I put them in the freezer for 5-7 mins and then gave them to them, massaging the traps over time until it sealed. Is this ok? The insects don't lose any nutritional value when they're frozen right? I tried not to kill them, just to slow them down, but I think they died. Was this alright? How do you do it?

You've got it right. I throw crickets in the fridge for 10-15. After feeding they wake up and move around, triggering the traps to seal. If it's dead you can use the massage technique.

Why would you bother putting the insects in the fridge ? The only time I ever did that was when I fed one of my B52's a wasp or some flies. Then I put them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. That was because I didn't want to get stung by the wasp and I wanted to slow the flies down enough so the couldn't just fly away. But if you're feeding earwigs, crickets etc just use a pair of tweezers, grab the insect somewhere where it wont get killed and feed it to the VFT. You can easily slide the end of the tweezers out of the closed trap.

DTDream18 wrote:Why would you bother putting the insects in the fridge ?

Well, it slows them down, like you said so yourself. I've fed insects before that were fully aware and agile, and it's rarely a smooth thing for me when that happens. They always get away and I'm forced to catch it and toss it back in the trap, where they manage to somehow dodge each and every trigger hair where I have to keep picking them up and tossing them in. I just feel like it's so much easier if they're slowed.

So, to rephrase your own question, "Why wouldn't you bother putting the insects in the fridge ?"

I've never had a problem with a trap sealing unless it is really slow. I kill everything. You can always hold it with tweezers and wiggle it while it closes shut for another couple seconds and then let go. I've read people say how "well if its dead you will have to keep triggering the trap." Never had a problem. One of my czech giants from here actually sealed up really tight after 10 minutes of dropping something in. Never seen a trap seal that quick and again no extra triggering either.

There is no need to feed them at all, they will feed themselves.

tommyr wrote:There is no need to feed them at all, they will feed themselves.

Normally, I wouldn't. However, it's been about a month since each plant has caught anything itself so I figured I'd give it a bit of nutrients so that it can grow its best in the peak of the growing season which it seems like we're quickly approaching.

As a form of twisted justice I try to only feed my CP's bugs that I found eating my non-CP's.

Bugs eat my plants, I feed them to my plants that eat bugs!

For the pitchers I just toss them in, for the VFT's I go with the tweezer method.

parker679 wrote:As a form of twisted justice I try to only feed my CP's bugs that I found eating my non-CP's.

Bugs eat my plants, I feed them to my plants that eat bugs!

For the pitchers I just toss them in, for the VFT's I go with the tweezer method.

LOL!! what poetic justice

For me, its little crickets (w/o legs) and tweezers.