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Venus Fly Trap

wildlife, gardening, environment, Rural living, Pets and Vets
Rhyd6
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Venus Fly Trap

#508053

Postby Rhyd6 » June 18th, 2022, 11:06 am

Found a fantastic place in Beaumaris yesterday which, as well as serving the most delicious coffee and walnut cake, had lots of venus fly traps for sale. I was very tempted to buy a couple because we seem to have problems with flies at home but when I read up on them it seems that they need feeding with live bugs etc. when there is a lack of flies. I'm a rescuer of spiders, silverfish and other creepy crawlies and I don't like the idea of feeding live things to a plant. Has anyone kept fly traps and is there any way of fooling them into thinking a little bit of raw mince is a dead fly?

R6

kempiejon
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Re: Venus Fly Trap

#508055

Postby kempiejon » June 18th, 2022, 11:21 am

When I were a lad a chum of mine had a Venus fly trap and he fed it live and dead flies also mince and also cheese. The plant died after a couple of years, drying out I think he decided rather than the diet.
Rhyd6 wrote:we seem to have problems with flies at home

and
Rhyd6 wrote:I'm a rescuer of spiders,


My neighbour calls on me to rescue the spiders from her bath and release them outside.

Laughton
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Re: Venus Fly Trap

#508063

Postby Laughton » June 18th, 2022, 12:15 pm

I'm a rescuer of spiders


I guess it depends on what you mean by "rescue". They are very efficient disposers of flies. And indoor spiders don't much like being transferred to outdoors.

DrFfybes
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Re: Venus Fly Trap

#508068

Postby DrFfybes » June 18th, 2022, 12:45 pm

You used to be able to buy them in IKEA, I got all my Vegan friends one for Xmas.

Seems they're widely available now, including B&Q

Paul

bungeejumper
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Re: Venus Fly Trap

#508128

Postby bungeejumper » June 18th, 2022, 5:14 pm

Rhyd6 wrote:Has anyone kept fly traps and is there any way of fooling them into thinking a little bit of raw mince is a dead fly?
No direct experience, but aren't you supposed to tweak the trigger hairs - two different hairs, at an interval of less than 20 seconds?

BJ

Breelander
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Re: Venus Fly Trap

#508151

Postby Breelander » June 18th, 2022, 6:42 pm

Rhyd6 wrote:... Has anyone kept fly traps and is there any way of fooling them into thinking a little bit of raw mince is a dead fly?

Yes. To avoid false triggers they count how many times the hairs are touched. They close after touching the hairs two times in relatively quick succession.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/how ... n-to-shut/

GrahamPlatt
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Re: Venus Fly Trap

#508176

Postby GrahamPlatt » June 18th, 2022, 8:37 pm

I was fascinated by them as a boy, and had several in succession.

https://www.carnivorousplants.co.uk/res ... ete-guide/

Rhyd6
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Re: Venus Fly Trap

#508304

Postby Rhyd6 » June 19th, 2022, 3:44 pm

Thank you all for your information, I shall buy a couple to take home with us and of course I shall have to return to the shop/cafe to make sure their coffee & walnut cake is up to standard :)

R6


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