Venus flytraps typically grow around about 4-15 leaves.
Dozens of traps
If your plant is growing 16+ traps and some of them are reasonably sized (1 cm across), then it is possible that you may have more than one plant growing in your pot. This isn’t a big deal and don’t panic. Your extra plants will usually happily coincide in the same pot no problem at all. If they are already in a very small pot (4 x 7 cm) then you may need to repot at some stage to give them room to grow.
If your plant is brand new, it is possible that it is fresh out of tissue culture. Many plants sold in shops are grown in labs with all sorts of exotic chemicals, nutrients and hormones. This process often leaves the plant in a rapidly growing state and they may not get over this for a few months after purchase. They should eventually slow down however, many of the traps will die and the remaining few will hopefully (fingers crossed) grow nice and big.
I have never seen this happen before myself. The phenomenon is referred to as false vivapary.
This is apparently not a completely understood topic and is believed to be caused by a hormonal mistake.1 If this happens to your plant, we recommend waiting till the stalk looks like it’s stopped growing, then clip it and root the new cuttings in the ground. With luck they’ll grow into nice big healthy plants.
The mighty Venus flytrap rose to prominence in popular culture in the 1960’s film, The Little Shop of Horrors. Directed by Roger Corman and written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist’s assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh.
Although the film didn’t get very much attention when it was originally released, it has since grown to cult classic status, thanks to its low budget and original style of humor. The film inspired a 1982 stage musical, and a 1986 feature film.
Venus flytraps come from swampy areas of the United States of America (USA) or more specifically, swampy areas of the states of North Carolina and South Carolina. Green Swamp in Brunswick and Columbus counties of North Carolina is the best known area for finding large numbers of Venus flytraps, however much of this areas has been destroyed by humans and it is possible that this amazing area will be eventually destroyed. For more information about the conservation of Green Swamp please visit the What’s so special about Green Swamp in NC? website.
If you want to see Venus flytraps in the wild, there is a preseve setup at Carolina Beach State Park for viewing these wonderful plants in their native habitat.
Removing Venus flytraps from the wild is strictly illegal. They are endangered and should never be removed from their native habitat.
There are a wide range of opinions on what the best potting mixture to use for a Venus flytrap is. However the one thing everyone agrees on is that the soil must be low quality. You can’t use rich, nitrogen filled soils as your plant will not like it at all. Venus flytraps evolved to catch bugs as a response to low soil quality and they don’t cope well when they’re out of their usual environment. And whatever you do, don’t add any fertilizer as you will likely kill your plant.
If you purchased your plant from a garden store and aren’t sure of what soil to use for repotting, it is often a good idea to keep using the soil your plant came in. Garden store workers are often uneducated in Venus flytrap maintenance, so be wary of any store assistants recommending you to use a particular potting mix. Some store assistants do know about Venus flytraps, but most assume that they are like any other plant and recommend incorrect soil mixes which can kill your plant.
Yep, Venus flytraps have flowers too! They’re a rare thing to see and most growers chop them off before they get to bloom. When they are in full bloom however they are a spectacular site.
The reason people remove the flowers is because creating them costs the plant a lot of energy. Their growth cycle will normally slow markedly after flowering and this often continues for a year after flowering. If your plant is kept in extremely bright sun light, then flowering may not be a huge problem. However all Venus flytraps kept indoors will struggle to grow after flowering and may even die.
A post with instructions on how to recognise a flower stalk and the best ways to remove it will be posted at a later date.
Mr Miyagi was onto something in Karate Kid. He used good old fashioned chop sticks to catch his flies! If you are bored some day and feel the need to catch some prime flies for your Venus flytrap, then take a look at this video for some tips on the best approach.
There is only one genus of Venus flytrap … Dionaea muscipula Soland. ex Ellis. However there are many different varieties of this one species.
Most cultivar species are distinguished by the colour of their traps, their trap shape and the size of their traps. Traps with strange shapes such as short or triangular shaped spines, deep red colours and abnormally large traps are often given their own names.
For detailed information on the taxonomy of carnivorous plants I recommend checking out Barry Rice’s carnivorous plants taxonomy page.
It turns out we don’t need real live Venus flytraps anymore. You can now purchase your very own electronic fly catcher which actually catches flies! Fly bait is placed in the mouth of the trap and when the fly crosses two sensors on the surface of the jaws, the trap snaps shut just like a real Venus flytrap! When swatted, the flytrap opens with a burp ready to catch another fly. The fly catcher can be purchased from Eurocosm.com.
The most likely answer however, is inadequate lighting. Venus fltraps require huge amounts of light and if your plant isn’t getting it then it will likely die. Full, bright sun all day long is the best solution to keep Venus flytraps healthy. With good lighting they can survive without being fed, minimal water, poor’ish soil conditions and lots of other nasty problems which afflict them. But if you keep your plant inside or live somewhere which is regularly overcast then you will likely have trouble keeping your plant healthy.
Remember that just because a few of your traps have turned black that doesn’t mean your plant is dying! Those traps will probably grow back nice and healthy in a few weeks anway.
Also, if you don’t know about winter dormancy, then go visit the winter dormancy post.
The question is, are they called “Venus Fly Traps”, “Venus Flytraps”, “Venus fly traps” or “Venus flytraps”?
Well, all of them are acceptable! Here on flytrapgrowing.info we refer to them as Venus flytraps, but that’s purely for consistency across the site. Many other websites and books refer to them by the other variations of the name If you want to be 100% correct, then it’s best to refer to the plant by it’s full name of Dionaea muscipula Soland. ex Ellis.
More information about the formal latin name of the Venus flytrap is available on our Taxonomy page.
Here’s a novel way to grow your own flytrap! Purchase a crappy plastic kit, complete with swamp rocks, peat, terrarium, bog buddies and decals! Or just make your own for half the price, whichever floats your boat. The kits are available from Carnivorous Creations.
Most tap water supplies in first world nations is treated with chlorine and/or fluoride and often contain large amounts of calcium and magnesium. These chemicals are toxic to Venus flytraps, in fact they’re probably not much good for plants in general, but Venus flytraps are particularly sensitive to chemicals in their water supply and it’s use can slow down the growth of your flytrap and sometimes even kill it.
If your plant is kept outside and there’s plenty of rain water available then you wont have any problems. But if you are in a dry spell or your plant is kept inside, then it’s a good idea not to use tap water for your plant.
Other options instead of using tap water are:
distilled water
rain water - collecting from your roof is usually quite easy
bottled filtered drinking water - expensive!
filtered tap water - make sure it’s a good filter though
Filtered water normally contains some chemical residues, but not enough to cause grief for your Venus flytrap. Spring water often contains significant other minerals so isn’t recommended, but is still a better option than using tap water.
Remember that movie ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids’? Well the sequel to that was ‘Honey I Blew up the Kids’ and I think that’s what someone did with this Venus flytrap. If only we could make real ones this big!
This is a follow up to my previous post on not using tap water.
It seems that some morons out there have been thinking up some truly stupid ways to purify water. Including the following:
Urinate on your plant
Oh for the love god no! Urine is often described as ‘clean’ due it not containing dangerous bacteria. However, it is still packed full of all sorts of metal salts which will likely kill your plant extremely quickly. Plus it’s disgusting, so don’t do it. If you have ever recommended this technique to anyone, then please slap yourself across the face now as punishment!
Leaving water to stand over night
This may get rid of a tiny amount of surface chlorine gas, but 99% will remain and at worst some water will evaporate and you will concentrate the remaining inorganic contaminants. So basically you will likely make your water a pinch more toxic by doing this!
Boil your water
Jeepers! This is even worse. Yes you will remove a simdgen of chlorine, but you are still concentrating all the inorganic contaminants which will kill your plant, so don’t do it.
Use a coffee or paper funnel type filter
Argh! Well at least this one doesn’t make things worse, but it certainly doesn’t help. You are just wasting your time. These are sieve type filters which can not filter out chemicals. The chemicals are too small to be blocked by a simple sieve system.
Collecting water from your fridge
Well this is a little weird, but may actually work. The water your fridge creates is condensed from the air, so technically should be void of almost all inorganic contaminants. This sound difficult though and I can’t imagine the average fridge would create a huge amount of water anyway.
Another good way to purify water which I didn’t mention in my previous post, is to use a reverse osmosis unit.
Plants generally get their nutrients from the air and nutrients in the soil. Flytraps however are native to humid boggy areas in North and South Carolina where acidic soil lacking in vital nutrients are found. The plants evolved to cope with the low nutrient soil they live in by extracting their nutrience from bugs. Venus flytraps can survive without catching bugs, but will generally grow faster with them.
And anyhows, imagine living your life and never getting to eat anything but dirt. A few bugs would probably start to sound appetising after living a life of sucking your nutrients out of the garden!
Well the first question to ask is why do you want to repot? If your answer is because the pot your plant came in is small and you ‘think’ your plant will grow better by repotting, then the answer is most likely no, don’t repot.
Venus flytraps do not need much room for their roots to grow, they’re quite happy living in teeny weeny pots (4 cm x 6 cm is usually big enough) and most pots bought from garden shops usually come with pots around this size or bigger. Repotting your Venus flytrap can shock it and slow down it’s growth, or even kill it.
Having said that, there are good reasons for deciding to repot, including improved soil aeration and possibly faster growth. A larger pot can often help protect your plant during freezing temperatures, although you should always protect your plant from freezing temperatures as they don’t like it.
If you are going to repot, then make sure you read the potting mix post for tips on what type of soil to use. If you are going to repot, I suggest doing it as they leaving their dormancy period (early spring or very late winter). If you must repot at any other time of the year, then make sure you keep the root system intact or your plant will probably die.
Using the wrong potting mix, tap water or worst of all adding fertlizer to your plant is sure fire way to eventually kill it. However, if you have done one of these then don’t panic, there are solutions!
If you’ve been watering your plant with tap water for many months and your plant is looking a little unhealthy, then it is advisable to flush the plant 4-5 times with clean water to get rid of those horrible inorganic residues which are killing your plant. Your plant should still live and re-potting shouldn’t be necessary.
If you’ve used the wrong potting mix or even used fertilizer and it’s late winter or early spring, then just repot and your plant should be fine. If it’s not late winter or early spring you will still need to repot your plant, but make sure you give your plant lots of light, keep it watered well and make sure you follow the advice here on flytrapgrowing.info as repotting at the wrong time of year is very hard on your plant. If you used a water soluble fertilizer such as potassium nitrate then you should be able to rinse it out with a good rinsing of water; fill your pot up with water and let it drain 20x or so to remove all of the fertilizer.
If you are growing your plant outside, make sure it is watered regularly during dry spells. Venus flytraps do not like being dry. Don’t panic if your plant is saturated with water as they are used to this happening in the wild and cope with being submerged in water for weeks on end. However if they dry up they will rapidly die so make sure you keep it wel watered in dry environments.
If your plant is inside a terrarium it is advisable to keep a constant level of water in the base to ensure a high humidity and to keep the soil moist. Terrarium’s are the easiest way to maintain your plant as they have a high humidity which prevents the plant and soil from drying out.
If you have your plant inside, but not in a terrarium then you will have to be very careful about preventing your plant from drying up. The easiest approach is to keep a constant supply of water in the base of the pot so that the bottom of the roots are touching a constant supply of water. If you live in an air conditioned or other very dry environment then you will need to keep topping up with water on a constant basis.
In general you don’t want the soil soaking wet, but it must be slightly moist at all time. So in a nutshell … moist good, soggy bad!
People often ask why their traps are red whereas their friends are green. The reason some traps are green is due to a lack of light. Healthy plants exposed to lots of light (which they love) will generally turn red, whereas those in inadequate light will stay green. The more light, the redder the traps will get.
Some varieties of Venus flytrap are more noticeably red than others, in particular:
Red Dragon
Colin’s Red Sunset
Red Piranha
Whereas some varieties such as Justina Davis have little or no red colouring at all, no matter how much light they get.
In general, the more red colouring a Venus flytrap has, the slower it will grow as it isn’t able to photosynthesise as effectively (photosynthesis requires chlorophyll which is what makes plants green).
Firstly, Venus flytraps are carnivorous. However, this does not mean that they can eat any old thing you decide to stick in it. You can not feed it any of the following:
McDonalds
Chocolate
Human flesh - gross!
Steak
Bread
Fish
Chicken
Chips/fries
Vegetables
plus most other things
Venus flytraps have evolved to consume only bugs. They’re very picky and if you feed them anything else they won’t like it. The best bugs to use are soft squishy bugs without super strong exoskeletons (too hard to digest). Ants and slaters are bad due to their hard exoskeletons and moths are too fuzzy to digest. Some of the best bugs to use are:
flies
crickets
cicadas
caterpillars (be careful they don’t eat their way out though!)
spiders
It is crucial that you don’t feed your plant anything bigger than about 1/4 the size of the leaf, any bigger and you risk damaging the plant or the plant rejecting the bug. If you’re careful you can go up to about 1/2 the size of the leaf but be careful.
Maggots are good food too, but that’s a topic for another post.
Overfeeding your plant with bugs which are too big to completely fit in it’s traps will definitely harm it. However feeding your plant lots of tiny bugs on a regular basis is usually not going to kill it.
In general you shouldn’t force feed your plants more than once a week. Of course if your plant is outside or you have lots of bugs in your house then it may catch significantly more than this of it’s own accord. This isn’t a big drama though, the worst that will happen is that your traps will die, turn black and then regrow again. Some growers have reported that over feeding leads to smaller weaker traps due to rapid regrowth.
Unsurprisingly, Venus flytraps are not able to digest the hard exoskeletons of most bugs. Only the proteins and other digestable ’squishy’ bits of the bugs your traps catch (or are fed) are digested. Digestion of the ’squishy’ bits is catalysed by enzymes secreted by glands in the lobes of each trap. Most traps finish the digestion process within 10 days. After this they open back up, leaving the skeletal remains of the bug.
The number of bugs your traps can digest before dying depends on how healthy your flytrap is. As a general rule of thumb, most household Venus flytraps catch two to three bugs before turning black and dying, but if you keep your plant in tip-top condition, then they may be able catch many more.
Note the sunken eyes of the digested fly in the photo above. Photo courtesy of Peter Millis.
So your plant isn’ catching enough flies? Or perhaps you are never around when it does. At any rate, at some point you may wish to catch flies to feed directly to your plant.
Fly Spray?
The simplest way to catch flies is to spray some fly spray around, this works great and any flies in a locked room will usually die within 10 mins or so with some regular household variety fly spray from your local super market. However … remember that the fly must move inside the trap or your plant will just spit it back out again. So you’ll either need to wriggle the plant around manually which risks damaging your plant (not recommended) or find a better fly catching method.
There is another problem associated with fly spray. Venus flytraps are very sensitive to chemicals and do not grow well when it exposed to them. However as long as you aren’t spraying your plants directly they should be able to handle it (in theory - don’t shoot me if your plant dies because of this!). The amount of fly spray needed to kill a fly is negligible, it is more likely to do you harm than your plant and they are designed to kill insects and pretty much nothing else. You are also making your plant a lot less likely to kill flies by itself if you get fly spray near it. Of course this doesn’t matter if you aren’t spraying anywhere near where your plant lives and you intend to hand feed it for the rest of it’s life.
Swatter
If you are going to stun the little buggers then you’d better make sure you don’t hit them too hard. Swatting is a risky practice and you’re liable to kill them before they even reach your plant.
Jar Trapping
There’s two approaches to ‘jar trapping’. You can either run around like an idiot winging your arms wildly trying to capture them, or you can stick a bit of rotting meat inside and leave it outside till they come to visit. Either way, all you need to do is stick the lid on and whammo you have a nice fly ready for feeding to your plant ‘Jar trapping’ is certainly the most recommended method of capturing flies as it doesn’t damage them during the process.
Cultivation
The cultivation of flies will be part of seperate post coming soon to flytrapgrowing.info.
Aside from the yuck factor, if you are skilled enough to catch a fly with your bare hands then you will be able to catch the little morsels of food whenever you see them. Years of video game playing and analysing the behaviour of flies will likely help, but if it’s too late for that then here is a handy list of tips which I learned from tygerland.net.
Stationary fly catching
attack from behind
don’t close your hand by smacking the fingers and palm together as you will likely make a mess
instead close your hand tightly and quickly but leave a tight channel for the fly to fit inside
Mid-air fly catching
you must have patience, speed and vision
catch the fly where it is going, not where it is otherwise you will miss
watch it, learn it’s path and flight style
move your hand quickly from the shoulder outwards to the point of connection
use the same hand closing technique as for stationary flies
anticipate the fly’s direction and velocity so that you meet it a 5 cm or so from where it was when you began your attack
ideal distance for closure is just before the arm straightens
practice, practice, practice!
And before you ask, no I don’t catch flies with my hands, yuck! And if you do follow this advice, make sure finish up by washing your hands.
Venus flytraps typically grow around about 4-15 leaves.
I have never seen this happen before myself. The phenomenon is referred to as false vivapary.
The mighty Venus flytrap rose to prominence in popular culture in the 1960’s film, The Little Shop of Horrors. Directed by Roger Corman and written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist’s assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh.
Venus flytraps come from swampy areas of the United States of America (USA) or more specifically, swampy areas of the states of North Carolina and South Carolina. Green Swamp in Brunswick and Columbus counties of North Carolina is the best known area for finding large numbers of Venus flytraps, however much of this areas has been destroyed by humans and it is possible that this amazing area will be eventually destroyed. For more information about the conservation of Green Swamp please visit the 
There are a wide range of opinions on what the best potting mixture to use for a Venus flytrap is. However the one thing everyone agrees on is that the soil must be low quality. You can’t use rich, nitrogen filled soils as your plant will not like it at all. Venus flytraps evolved to catch bugs as a response to low soil quality and they don’t cope well when they’re out of their usual environment. And whatever you do, don’t add any fertilizer as you will likely kill your plant.
Yep, Venus flytraps have flowers too! They’re a rare thing to see and most growers chop them off before they get to bloom. When they are in full bloom however they are a spectacular site.
It turns out we don’t need real live Venus flytraps anymore. You can now purchase your very own electronic fly catcher which actually catches flies! Fly bait is placed in the mouth of the trap and when the fly crosses two sensors on the surface of the jaws, the trap snaps shut just like a real Venus flytrap! When swatted, the flytrap opens with a burp ready to catch another fly. The fly catcher can be purchased from 
Well, that could be one of many things.
The question is, are they called “Venus Fly Traps”, “Venus Flytraps”, “Venus fly traps” or “Venus flytraps”?
Here’s a novel way to grow your own flytrap! Purchase a crappy plastic kit, complete with swamp rocks, peat, terrarium, bog buddies and decals! Or just make your own for half the price, whichever floats your boat. The kits are available from 
Most tap water supplies in first world nations is treated with chlorine and/or fluoride and often contain large amounts of calcium and magnesium. These chemicals are toxic to Venus flytraps, in fact they’re probably not much good for plants in general, but Venus flytraps are particularly sensitive to chemicals in their water supply and it’s use can slow down the growth of your flytrap and sometimes even kill it.
This is a follow up to my previous post on not using tap water.
Plants generally get their nutrients from the air and nutrients in the soil. Flytraps however are native to humid boggy areas in North and South Carolina where acidic soil lacking in vital nutrients are found. The plants evolved to cope with the low nutrient soil they live in by extracting their nutrience from bugs. Venus flytraps can survive without catching bugs, but will generally grow faster with them.
Well the first question to ask is why do you want to repot? If your answer is because the pot your plant came in is small and you ‘think’ your plant will grow better by repotting, then the answer is most likely no, don’t repot.
Using the wrong potting mix, tap water or worst of all adding fertlizer to your plant is sure fire way to eventually kill it. However, if you have done one of these then don’t panic, there are solutions!
If you are growing your plant outside, make sure it is watered regularly during dry spells. Venus flytraps do not like being dry. Don’t panic if your plant is saturated with water as they are used to this happening in the wild and cope with being submerged in water for weeks on end. However if they dry up they will rapidly die so make sure you keep it wel watered in dry environments.
Firstly, Venus flytraps are carnivorous. However, this does not mean that they can eat any old thing you decide to stick in it. You can not feed it any of the following:
‘Jar trapping’ is certainly the most recommended method of capturing flies as it doesn’t damage them during the process.
Aside from the yuck factor, if you are skilled enough to catch a fly with your bare hands then you will be able to catch the little morsels of food whenever you see them. Years of video game playing and analysing the behaviour of flies will likely help, but if it’s too late for that then here is a handy list of tips which I learned from