Besides my boyfriend, my gorgeous carnivore pets keep me alive! They’re a lot of fun and eat lots of flies! The one with the reddish color in the center of the trap is Dracula. Got Dracula as a baby so it’s not as big as King Henry. I bought King Henry as a pre-adult. The first shot is a dumb fly that landed on top of King Henry. I get sick pleasure out of watching them get eaten. In the last pic, you can see a couple of flies in the traps.
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18 comments
Hmm, how often does it need to “feed”?
Like if they run out of flies, will they die?
What can you feed it if there are no flies?
And does it eat smaller things like gnats?
Asking because now you got me thinking about getting one!!
Like I have gnats or whatever they are that get in my apt in the summer. They’re much smaller than flies so does it activate their trigger mechanism? And I don’t know if there’ll be enough flies in the winter for them to eat?
Also, how much sunlight does it need (direct or indirect?) and how much care do you need to take? I’m pretty bad at taking care of stuff, like over watering, under watering.
I put them in the window. They feed naturally with the flies that land on them in the house. King Henry is big enough to eat the big flies. It just happens to catch them, no problem. It had 4 flies at once. The trap closes and the plant sucks out the insides of the fly. Then the trap opens in a few days and leaves the dried out fly carcass. I use a spray bottle, one spritz to moisten it so that I can scrape the fly off easily with a toothpick. I try not to trigger the trap closed when I do it. It’s happened before though.
They won’t die if they don’t eat flies. The trap can close about 3 times before it dies. It’s important not to trigger it on your own if you can help it. Then when the trap turns black, just cut it off and more grow back in its place.
Dracula is the smaller one and that one usually eats gnats that happen to land in it. It can’t handle big flies like King Henry. If a trap catches food that is too big, it dies.
So yes, gnats are just fine.
In the winter, they will go into dormancy and hibernate. I got them in the summer so I was able to really enjoy them. I leave them in the window so they get sunlight all day. You can only use distilled water. I have a few jugs of distilled water. Tap water kills them. Oh, winter dormancy…from Thanksgiving until Valentine’s Day most of the traps will die. It will look dead, but it won’t be. I will have to get a flourescent light for dormancy. They won’t really eat at that time and they won’t need much water. Then when Spring comes around, they will grow back bigger and better!
They’re pretty easy to take care of. They don’t need to be watered much, every couple of days. Overwatering kills them. You have to make sure the soil is moist, not damp.
Some people like to put them outside, but I don’t. They use special soil like peat moss and sphagnum moss. That’s the soil they came in when I ordered them. I’ve had them since the beginning of August. I haven’t repotted them yet. Meaning I haven’t bought bigger pots and more moss to put them in. I will eventually. They just don’t need it now. They’ve been thriving in the window. If you’re interested, go to Southbaytraps. com
That’s where I bought mine. They’re fun. If you need more info, there are plenty of sites and message boards that will show you how to care for them. YouTube also has plenty of info on how to care for them. Hope I answered all your questions! 🙂
Cool, thanks for the info. I might get them next summer. Now that it’s winter, it doesn’t make sense to get one now. I wish you posted earlier! lol 😛
HA! Yeah, I was too lazy to figure out how to post pics before. I call them my children because I sure as hell don’t want any kids.
I think the strategy would be to get a baby one and a grown one, like you did, to capture both the small ones and the big ones.
That’s a good idea! Dracula was called a “youngster” and King Henry is a “pre-adult”. You can get them “grown up”, but I wanted to watch them grow and raise them.
How long does it take for the fly to die?
When the fly moves around inside the closed trap, it makes the trap start eating it quicker. So basically, little does the fly know, the more it fights, the quicker the digestive process starts.
I’m such a wuss in my old age. . . I try to shoo flies outside ,spiders also, so I won’t have to kill them, but this is nature, so what can you say? Pretty cool.
It’s a nice way to get rid of insects. You can feed them spiders, moths and ants, if the plant is big enough. Look on YouTube, I saw an awesome video of a flytrap eating a HUGE moth. Can’t wait till mine grow more and more.
You should add some drosera and nepenthes for variety. I <3 CP's.
Thanks! I see there are many droseras and Nepenthes that don’t go into dormancy. I will get some to hold me over until my plants grow back in Spring. I never knew taking care of CP’s would make me so happy, but it’s a really satisfying hobby!
Most drosera and nepenthes don’t go dormant over the winter, but they do require warm, humid conditions to thrive. They’re mostly tropical/subtropical plants, but they’re gorgeous specimens. I used to keep a bunch of them when I lived in Florida, had a little CP garden on the patio.
Why do you “get sick pleasure out of watching them get eaten”? That is a serious question, I’m trying to understand why some people enjoy watching the suffering of others. Is it because you are suffering and wish you can transfer it to others?
I think it has more to do with the hatred of flies, married to the strangeness of a plant that moves like an animal. At least, that’s why I always loved watching those sick little things do their dirty business.
Flies are pests and a nuisance. It’s not like I said I want to go out and kill people. Jesus Christ…
You should watch this video: 😛
youtube. com/watch?v=Nc3dY0DUmm4