This entire site, and especially this article, have been extremely helpful to me. I bought my first fly trap this summer, and I had no idea they were such complex little things.I got 'him' because I had alot of flies in my apartment and thought he might help with pest control, and even if he didn't, he would be a unique thing to have as a pet. His name is "Chomper" and he has done an excellent job of catching the flies and other little bugs. I was very surprised at how well he did and he grew super fast the first few months. I didn't know what I was doing, but I planted him in a decorative glass jar with the peat moss stuff he came in, and kept him near the window. My windows are stained glass, so they let not so intense light in, and they're old, so its a little drafty. He stayed really warm all summer, but now that its getting cool outside, his little mouths are going black, and it seemed like after he would catch a bug, they wouldn't open back up and be healthy. Reading through this site, I will now change a few things...like not watering with tap water...oops
and maybe I'll let him stay by the window so he can continue to get cooler and cooler and go dormant. I didn't know they did that, and I was a little sad because I thought he was going to die. And I'll stop triggering his traps...I thought it was really cool when he would "bite" but I guess that's not so healthy for them either. I'm sure everyone reading this thinks I'm a dork, but it's a learning process! And I'm lucky I found this site before I threw him away for "dying". You guys are awesome! Thanks for all the awesome advice on Chomper care!