FlyTrapCare Forums

Hi everyone, so first of all i am new to flytraps. I bought the three of them from a local garden store a little over a week ago, i get a lot of box elder bugs in and around the house during the warmer months so i figured they could start chowing down on them. I live in Salt Lake City Utah. I am using a paralite and peat moss mix for the media, i think i used about 40 para/60 peat and its about 4 inches deep. Watering and Spraying with distilled water. I try to keep the humidity between 60 and 80, and the media moister and about 5 or 6 at root level and 7 or 8 at the base. Now this is where i think my problem is at, the light i'm using is a 120volt 27 watt 5000k daylight fluorescent bulb. I don't know the fixtures specs because i got it along time ago and it doesn't say on it. I know i got it from a pet store for a heating lamp originally. The light hangs about 18 inches over the terrarium, and the plants are about 4 or 5 inches from the top of the terrarium, so 22 or 23 inches total. i started off giving them 12 hours of light a day. They each ate a bug the first day or so but none of the traps have really open up since. And i started to notice a few of the traps started dying (even a couple of the new little green ones) and the teeth were turning black. So i trimmed the dead stuff and did some research and read a report that i might be burning them with too much light. So i lowered it to 8 hours for one day and noticed it didn't help at all and maybe just got a little worse, so i did some more research and have been reading that they really cant get too much light and i'm thinking maybe mine is too high above the plants. When i bought them they came in some plastic tubes so all the traps were up and reaching for the sky lol, since i transplanted them they have spread out a bit and don't seem to be reaching out for light. I am going to be attaching some pictures of my setup, plants, and what they came in. The pictures were taken about 10 or 15 mins after a spraying and i used my phone so they aren't the best quality. Any advise or information will be much appreciated, thank you.


http://s587.photobucket.com/albums/ss31 ... 0Flytraps/

P.S. I forgot to mention i used no fertilizers either and regular Canadian sphagnum peat moss

Your flytraps do not look bad at the moment, but there are some signs of light deprivation that are starting to appear. The light sounds like it is not powerful enough to be hung that high above the plants, and the light spectrum is slightly off to what a flytrap grows best at. Most lights should be hanging around 6 inches above a flytrap to effectively light it. The best light spectrum you can use is 6500k and you can get a 4 ft. 6500k light with the fixture for only around 30 dollars which can be found at most department or home improvement stores. The best lighting you can give a flytrap is natural direct sunlight outside although having flytraps in a terrarium outside poses a few problems. The terrarium can become like an oven in direct sunlight if left unattended and the clear walls will allow the soil to rapidly heat and cool, both of which can stress or possibly kill a flytrap. A light colored pot that is at least 5 inches deep works well outside.

Terrariums are not the best for flytraps, they usually keep the humidity high with little airflow which encourages fungus and mold growth. A computer fan can help to circulate air, but making the switch from a terrarium to a pot will also work. Pots have drainage holes which keeps the amount of water in the soil in check and it doesn't have walls to block airflow.

I suggest reading through these pages, they can help give you a better understanding on how to care for a flytrap

http://www.flytrapcare.com/the-importan ... traps.html
http://www.flytrapcare.com/the-importan ... traps.html
http://www.flytrapcare.com/media-soil-f ... traps.html
http://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-trap-dormancy.html

Cool thats what i've been reading and thinking, is a better light and much lower. And yes i read that the natural light is the best thing for it but i have a lot of trees around my house and only get enough light on the west side in the evenings on the front porch. Also another reason i did it inside in a terrarium is cause the bugs are in the house and i wanna just be able to throw em in there when i see em crawling around in my room . And i also have thought about the mold problem and have been hand fanning them every few hours and after sprayings, since im around the house alot but probably will invest in a fan also soon. Thank you very much for your input and the fast reply

Trapper Initiate wrote:but i have a lot of trees around my house and only get enough light on the west side in the evenings on the front porch.

Even dappled light or shade under a tree will almost certainly be better for the plant than any artificial light you can give it, so don't let that sway you to growing it indoors.

Okay i will take that into consideration. Since its starting to get closer to the colder months for this area i might wait till next spring and try to place a few outside around the house as well. Thanks