FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Silly question I guess but do venus fly traps need to trap flies for nutrients? Should I feed my plant flies? We have a wormery which attracts a lot of small fruit flies which are easy to catch and I have popped one or two into my newly acquired 'pet' plant and it obligingly closed around the unfortunate and still very much alive fruit fly. My ten year old twin grandsons are going to love this.

I am new on this site and will introduce myself as soon as possible. Thanks for reading this. fragrant-orchid in the United Kingdom.

Well, insects do give VFT's nutrients but they are not necessary to keep the plant alive. They will, however, give the plant a boost so it will grow quicker and put up bigger traps if fed regularly. You must be cautious about overfeeding. A Venus Flytrap should be only fed one or two traps and it is per plant.

Dont ever overfeed them

I am just dropping by to say Welcome

LAKJP gave the perfect answer.

My baby traps stay inside for their entire first year. I never feed them, and they do just fine.

I say leave them alone, feeding the wrong animal or to big an animal will most likely kill the trap, the plant will do fine without, as long as it's getting plenty sun.

They color better when not fed. I've found they get just as big unfed. When you feed them they do this speed up thing and stop but through the growing season, most of the plants are going to have that either way.