FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi,
I live in the United Kingdom and am interested in growing some carnivorous plants in my allotment. I was hoping to grow a few in my polytunnel, as well as outside. I was hoping I could catch some small pests which keep eating my lettuces and fruits. (flies, slugs etc)

Polytunnel temperature
Summer: 30c +
Winter : 8 - 15c

Outdoors temperature
Summer: 20+
Winter: -1 - 6c


Please could I get some advice on the best plants which fufill this criteria.

It won’t work. By insect traps

Copper2 wrote:It won’t work. By insect traps

Why wouldn't it work?

There are plenty you could grow successfully but I think what copper2 means is it won't work to significantly reduce your bug problem.

Huntsmanshorn wrote:There are plenty you could grow successfully but I think what copper2 means is it won't work to significantly reduce your bug problem.

My idea was just to control pests in my greenhouse which I built

Also they look really cool - I'm addicted before I've even started.

Spent 5 hours last night watching videos about carnivorous plants

You can grow sarracenia, VFTs, sundews, they will all do reasonably well.

Cheers
Steve

Most greenhouse pests like thrips, aphids, whitefly, mealybugs, scale, mites, etc. will affect carnivorous plants as well so I don't think any would provide a good "pest control" in your situation. Sundews will be good at catching small flying insects but even then I have gotten aphids on my sundews a handful of times which I had to treat with insecticide.

None of them are really going to be that good at catching slugs.

I use Drosera capensis for greenhouse pest control. It works well for me. Especially around my seedlings. The sundews would work well to reduce pests in larger numbers. They grow fast and eat a lot. And as a member you can get a mix of capensis seeds for free from the seedbank. Flytraps may eat larger bugs but may not reduce the numbers significantly.