FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

As title says, my plants have some kind of red marks on top of their traps.
What does that mean?
Thanks!

Jozo wrote:As title says, my plants have some kind of red marks on top of their traps.
What does that mean?
Thanks!

Hard to say without a photo.

Here is the pic:

Im not seeing any red marks

Fieldofscreams wrote:Im not seeing any red marks

I don't see what you mean either. They look really healthy to me.

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Oh okay then, sorry for bothering. I thought that im doing something wrong. Btw, i hav an issue with plants eating, i put fish food in their traps they closed yesterday and today they opened with same food inside? Thats not good right? Thanks

Traps need active prey to close completely, they excite the activation hairs in the traps, so the trap knows it has something in it worth the extra energy to close completely, rather than a false trigger by rain or similar. If you use food that doesn’t move then you need th excite the hairs by massage or similar then it will close.
Cheers
Steve

Hi Steve, this is my procedure:
1. I put food in them
2. I massage them to close
3. They close and i wait a day.
4. Second day they open but still with food in traps
You say i should massage them more times while they have food in mouth?

Are the traps sealing not just closing? It's very obvious when they seal.

What do you mean by sealing?

Noticing that all of your traps are closed, and overall, the plant looks a little bit stressed (maybe still dormant?)

Triggering the traps often, or overfeeding, can stress a plant out. There's really no need to feed more than a couple times a month. The traps generally look nicer, more colorful, etc., when not fed/triggered.

If you're keeping it outside, there's no need to feed. They'll do just fine on their own.

If you're talking about the red stuff on the traps, that's actually a sign you're giving it enough sunlight. Nice job!

About the fish food, flytraps won't waste their energy digesting raindrops/other things that might fall into their traps in the wild because they won't continue to stimulate the trigger hairs; after you put the fish food in, lightly squeeze the trap for about 40 seconds to flex the hairs inside; this will signal to the trap that it has food inside and not just some piece of junk that somehow got in the trap. To see what a sealed flytrap looks like, take your hands together, clasp them together like a closed flytrap with your fingers interlocking, then pull your fingers apart while still keeping your palms together. To give you a better idea, here's a pic. You can see 2 traps sealed.

Happy growing!