Wednesday 9 December 2015

Can Venus Flytraps Be Fed Ants

Venus flytraps eat ants, flies, mosquitoes and other insects.


Even though the Venus flytrap is considered a carnivorous plant, it does not truly eat meat. It does, however, eat many types of insects. They actually eat more of the bugs that crawl than the ones that fly, as they trigger the closing mechanism more often. Does this Spark an idea?


Venus Flytrap Diet


Venus flytraps that live in the wild will eat anything that crawls into them, such as ants, millipedes, beetles and other such creatures. They will also consume flying insects, such as flies or mosquitoes. When grown indoors, they mostly eat dead flies, ants or mosquitoes.


Considerations


Despite their carnivorous rating, they are healthy eaters. If you would feed them meat, such as a hamburger, the fat and protein would rot the plant out and eventually kill it. If they were to try to consume anything that was a third the size of their trap or larger, it would cause severe stress and kill the plant.


Fun Facts


Venus flytraps can go up to one or two months without eating. If you grow one, only feed it once a week, with 10 days between feedings being optimal. Once a trap has made a capture, they will remain closed for one to two weeks. If something other than an insect triggered the trap, however, it will open within a few hours.

Tags: Venus flytraps, anything that, flies mosquitoes