Feeding vft

[Jason Wong]

Don't know why mine didn't fully digest the plant, maybe it got too *sick* and tired of eating insects lol

The insect has some juicy bits left when it opened (I SAW I didn't poke it or taste it)

, maybe it was too big for the trap

 

[Jason Wong]

Quote[/b] (Derrick @ May 09 2004,1:11)]

Quote[/b] (pooplol @ May 08 2004,8:37)]My dente ate something and started digesting it on 4/29/04 when i left it out side. the bug was about 1/4 of the size of the trap  It still hasn't opened, the leaf is green, why won't it open.

Dont know but in my experiences I never seen a fly trap start to open in the daylight, it seems they always start to open at night. I had a recent trap stay closed for two weeks,when our nights started warming up it opened... Maybe its the weather??

maybe we should feed it something then try heating it (gently)

 

[Stevie D]

I use woodlice. These fellows, in case the common name is different in your parts of the world, foreign types:

My VFTs' traps stay closed for weeks (even months) around woodlice, which I take to be a sign they're getting nutrients from their prey all that time. They go through flies and other lesser morsels in a matter of days, so I don't bother with 'em. Pain in the proverbial to catch, too!

Plonk 'em in a tobacco tin, set freezers to stun, et voila - dinner is served!

 

[rocklizard]

That's interesting and it's something i'm going to try. There doesn't look like much meat in those woodlice though.... maybe they're immune to the digestive juices of the vft - kind of like us trying to chew through a lobster shell

 

[Stevie D]

Quote[/b] (rocklizard @ May 11 2004,2:35)]That's interesting and it's something i'm going to try. There doesn't look like much meat in those woodlice though.... maybe they're immune to the digestive juices of the vft - kind of like us trying to chew through a lobster shell

That's what I was worried about - the relative toughness of their shells and lack of meat.  

But I thought I'd give woodlice a try (well, feeding them to my VFTs, not eating them myself!) because we're over-run with them in the garden.

My VFTs seem to love 'em, though, and aren't showing any signs of getting tired of the taste, either! (No discolouration on traps, etc.)

I would have thought that the traps would have just opened out again, or blackened, if they weren't getting any nutrients from the little fellers. I dunno! I guess there's more meat to a woodlouse than meets the eye!  

 

[rocklizard]

2 maybe 3 weeks for my vfts to digest their insects. But I haven't really kept time. I just feed the open traps with what ever I can find. It doesn't matter if the traps turn black. The nutrients from the insect is more than enough to compensiate. after all that's what the traps are designed for.

That particular trap of yous could be a slow eater

 

[pooplol]

If the trap dies while digesting does it still get the nutrients?

 

[Est]

In my experience (all one of them so far), those little buggers kept my traps closed for a long time... In fact, the trap is still closed. Hmmm.

Pooplol, it depends when the trap dies, the nutrients don't all jump out of something all at once.

 

[Warlock]

Do ants generally rot traps? The only trap I fed an ant to just recently turned crispy brown, and then started to go black.