FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

HELP!

Hello, most of the traps on my Venus flytrap are turning black because of the woodlouse/sowbugs i have been feeding them! I just have a simple question, do any of you guys feed your plants this type of bug? or have you been experiencing any problems with this type of bug? I am worrying weather or not that these bugs are either poisonous, or eat the plant inside? PLEASE respond to this and tell me what you think is wrong

it maybe because the sowbugs and rolypolies have glands like centipedes that let out fumes when they roll up that can affect the trap.

I feed my trap a rolly polly but the problem with mine was the trap didn't completly close thus inviting bacteria and mold, this may be the case with your traps if they can't completely wrap around the little devils?

yea thats a good reason. i was watchin a vid of a typical eating one of then and it could even close all the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-ZWObg6 ... annel_page

It can't be that because the trap was completely sealed...

I've fed my plants some woodlice like two weeks ago.
On my plants, the traps that ate them are still closed (after two weeks) so I guess they're hard to digest.
One trap also died already because it couldn't close properly.
The other traps are still digesting but show no signs of dying.

However, the long time it takes to digest woodlice might be an indication that after a while, a trap gets digested by her own secretions, or in other words: there might be a maximum digesting period for a trap, and if it takes longer to digest a bug, the trap might die.
The question is then, will the plant have absorbed any nutrients, because if the answer is yes, woodlice are still a good meal for a VFT. If not, it's better not to feed them these kind of bugs anymore, except for the really small ones..

I also fed mine some about 2 and a half weeks ago, one trap is black and the others arent opening.

I put a handful of pill bugs (rollie pollies) in the pot with my vfts cause they eat decaying matter which helps keep the soil free of fungi and overall a better environment for my ft's i never force feed my traps letting them eat naturally makes for a happier healthier plant.

Do you have a current pic of your plant you can share?

stop necrobumping this aaaaa
did you guys not see this was from 2009 xd
anyway yeah I do find that woodbugs cause problems for my flytraps so I usually let them catch their own food

Pill bugs are (land) crustaceans so they decay very fast upon death. A large trap can usually digest them fast enough to not have an issue but a smaller trap will often get overwhelmed with bacteria and turn black as the pillbug rots inside.

Here's a pic of my vfts. Doing well outdoors the traps on the perimeter where half dead in walmart and on sale for 1.69 so i bought all of them.