magicwiser wrote:hannah36 wrote:i tested one of the other mouths to see if it would close.
Just to build on what has already been said, it is ok to test a trap here and there but I wouldn't do it regularly. Traps can only close a small number of times before they die, so triggering them needlessly can lead to an early death for the trap.
But now that the trap has a bug in it, it seals up for digestion, which can take a week or so. It is also fairly normal for the trap to die during the digestion process (especially if the bug was too big) so if it starts to turn black, dont sweat it.
One of my flytraps once caught a bumblebee. It was nearly too big to close around, and it's a shock it fit in there at all, much less didn't manage to beat its way out. The trap was weighed all the way to the ground, and it stayed like that for nearly two weeks. I kept checking on it obsessively to see if it would be okay, and though the trap turned various shades of sickly yellow and lime green in the process, it was able to digest the thing. It did open up again after it finished, but it seemed that as soon as it finished the chore, it was done, and died.
So, big bugs don't necessarily mean the trap will die, but... I definitely don't recommend it. I could tell that it definitely took a lot out of my plant to deal with that monster, and all things considered, it would have been better if I'd snapped it off and let a new trap grow in its place instead.