Venus flytraps are perennial, carnivorous plants that can live up to 20 years in the wild. While most of their energy is obtained through photosynthesis, insects provide nutrients that aren’t readily available in the soil.

photosynthesis

Once the trap closes, the digestive glands that line the interior edge of the leaf secrete fluids that dissolve the soft parts of the prey, kill bacteria and fungi, and break down the insect with enzymes to extract the essential nutrients.

The Venus flytrap’s primary prey is ants, but it will also eat flies, beetles, slugs, spiders and even tiny frogs. Flytraps don’t just eat bugs for nutrition, though. Like other plants, they also need water, gases and sunlight.

20 years

between 5 to 12 days

Fortunately for people, Venus flytrap plants can’t eat anything much bigger than a housefly and mostly they eat mosquitoes and gnats. If you put the tip of your finger in the flytrap’s bug eating mouth, it will quickly snap shut, but it won’t hurt at all.

As the insect struggles to escape, it triggers even more outgrowths, causing the Venus flytrap to tighten its grip and release enzymes to digest its snack. Each “mouth” can only snap shut four or five times before it dies, whether it catches something or not.

Fully grown Venus Flytraps flower in Spring, but unless you are an experienced grower and intend to harvest seed, you should cut off the flower stalk once it’s reached about 5 cm tall. Flowering can be exhausting for Venus Flytraps, and most plants will grow more vigorously during summer if prevented from flowering.

A good reason to keep the flower stalk is to later collect seeds (will need to pollinate). And not only will you be able to collect seeds, but also enjoy your Venus Fly Trap’s flowers.

During the growing season, grow your flytrap outside in full sun. Provide 6 or more hours of direct sunlight for vigorous growth. If full sun is not possible, provide a minimum of 4 hours of direct sunlight with bright indirect light during the rest of the day.

Do not use boiled tap water for Venus flytraps. Boiling the tap water won’t remove minerals and other dissolved solids that are harmful to Venus flytraps. Only water Venus flytraps with distilled water, reverse osmosis water, or rainwater.

In general, it is almost impossible to overwater Venus flytraps. In fact, flytraps can survive being completely submerged in water for a couple of days. However, if Venus flytraps are kept too wet for too long, it will lead to problems.

Feeding Venus Flytrap Dead flies won’t work in Venus flytrap feeding; the insect must move around inside the trap to trigger it to close and digest it. It also needs to be small enough that the trap can close tightly around it to keep out bacteria.

It takes a lot of energy to close a trap and digest the food inside. If you close too many at once, the plant uses all of its reserves and the traps begin to blacken.

Overfeeding Closing a trap and digesting an insect requires energy. If you feed every single trap on your plant – or worse, trigger the traps for fun without giving them a meal – it’s likely that some of the leaves will turn black and die. This probably isn’t fatal, so don’t panic.

No harm will come to you, but you may harm the plant. The leaves that form the trap portion of the flytrap can only close so many times before they die, so stimulating them unnecessarily only serves to hasten their end. When told not to touch a Venus flytrap, people often assume it’s for their own safety.

The Venus flytrap is famous for its unusual ability to catch and digest insects and other small animals. And although it has no brain or nervous system to speak of, its behavior is strikingly intelligent.

After the trap has snapped shut, the plant turns it into an external stomach, sealing the trap so no air gets in or out. Glands produce enzymes that digest the insect, first the exoskeleton made of chitin, then the nitrogen-rich blood, which is called hemolyph.

Once a trap closes, it can reopen within 24 hours, only if it has missed its prey or has non-organic substances in its trap. However, to digest its prey, it can take anywhere from three to five days to fully complete the process, leaving the trap closed for as long as it takes to finish.

It usually takes 5–7 days to complete the digestion process through an array of digestive glands, and it is only after digestion is complete that trap can begin to open again. Closing states of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula).

The Venus Fly Traps and their pots should be put into plastic bags and placed into the refrigerator for the 3 to 5 months. Once dormancy is over (around March), remove the plant from refrigerator and repot in appropriate medium. Place pot in a tray of water and in a window with good sunlight.

Probably the hardest thing to pull off as a new grower, winter dormancy for Venus flytraps starts around November, and lasts until late February or early March. During this time, daylight should wane, temperatures should drop, and soil should dry out a bit.

If possible, put the plants in a south-facing window of an unheated porch or garage that doesn’t freeze. Ideally, the night-time temperature should stay between 32 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Daytime highs can get into the 70°F and even 80°F range and flytraps will remain dormant so long as the days are still short.