Carnivorous Plants

[QueenCobra]

I’ve seen Venus flytraps and the starter for a pitcher plant at a plant store (not in action, thankfully) and honestly…I see the benefit but they kind of creep me out.

It’s almost like having a pet, I guess. You have to keep feeding them. Maybe my impression of them is distorted by the Pirahna Plants in Mario or The Little Shop of Horrors, but…they are fascinating.

When I read that some of these plants eat birds, I felt like crying. But I guess they have to eat, too.

Some fossil pollen has been found for extinct carnivorous plants. I wonder what those would have looked like.

I also saw a trailer for a Lifetime movie once where a woman fed her husband’s ashes to a Venus flytrap. Very camp. I don’t think they would eat that, though. They don’t even eat dead bugs, because movement is what triggers their mouth to open….

So…have any of you owned a carnivorous plant? What did you think of it?

 

[nightglow]

I've had Venus flytraps a couple of times. I never had them long term and I want to try again when I get plant lights later. I don't know about the other carnivorous plants, but Venus flytraps aren't a tropical plant and I think part of the problem of them dying is that they are treated as such sometimes with a plastic cover and stuff. They are from the Carolinas. Technically, they can be grown outside and survive winter where I live, if you cover them for winter, so I want to experiment with that for sure too at the same time as having them inside again. I live a few states away.
They do need distilled water or rain water and not hard tap water and the soil needs to lack nutrients and have a higher pH. Peat moss.
Googling here, they need 4-8 hours of direct sun. Indirect sun the rest of the time.

I don't see why you couldn't feed them dead bugs if you know they weren't poisoned. The plants rely on movement because that is the only way they can feed themselves. But if you hand feed them, you have to be careful to not over do it. Bugs are a supplement for the plant and not the main food source. Think of one bug as a dose of fertilizer. You wouldn't dose your plant with fertilizer daily or do multiple doses at once. I am not even sure weekly is appropriate. The plants are built to attract a bug by themselves, so maybe once a month of hand feed should be the most intervention the owner could do. Just my thoughts.