TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk
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In all probability you'll end up tearing or cutting the leaf to get it open. If you manage to release the insect without inadvertently killing it yourself it has probably suffered enough internal injuries that it will soon afterwards anyway.
I'm in South East Asia. Although having said that, I still rarely see a mantis. Maybe 5 times in my life of 27 years...
But then again maybe I'm just not looking for them in the right places that they are to be found!
My pops told me to let nature take its course and not pull it out of the trap. I felt like telling him, in the nature takes its course way, nature would never see a VFT growing in South East Asia... but that's another topic.
I came home today and the mantis arms were limp. I think he's gone home...
its a pretty mantis...but yes as was stated a mantid is an adult when it has fully developed wings. Males have a tendency to fly more than females as they are lighter.
Even If its dead I would pull it out. Sometimes, when VFTs catch prey that is partially outside of the trap, the prey breaks down and rots on the outside and causes the trap to blacken. I have noticed that this is the case when they catch large insects.
There's no way it would survive, even if you freed it the second you found it.
The trap is all sealed up and it's probably lost many organs. If it did survive, it would be extremely tired and handicapped, it would quickly starve or be eaten by a faster predator or another mantis. Maybe if you wanted to save the trap a bit of trouble you could pull it out but the mantis wouldn't survive.
If you keep carnivorous plants you can't honestly be sad when it kills a normal prey item, no matter how big an insect it is. That's what they do.
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