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traps not closing

I tried to feed my VFT a small fly today and the two larger traps (1 inch each) wouldn't respond. The fly crawled in and out of the traps with ease. Then I picked it up and let it crawl into a smaller trap (3/4 inch) and it closed right away. This trap might die since there's not a tight seal around the fly.
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Anyways, back to the larger traps, is it possible for traps to stop working but still stay alive? (Alive = normal color and still photosynthesize without turning black).
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Is this a new plant? The same thing happened to me for one of my VFT's. I'm still not sure if it was the shipping or the cold spell, but the plant eventually recovered.
 
If you've had your VFT for awhile now and they won't close,
they probably never will. What's important is what are the new traps doing; this is what you will guage the overall health of your plant.
 
These traps that won't close have closed a couple of times before (false alarms).
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The traps have a finite number of times they will catch prey (2 or 3 times). It will last longer by false alarms, but there is only so many times that can happen too. It is not a muscular
reaction, but rather a cellular one; so it is more fragile. After awhile, it seems they can become exhausted.

Even after a false alarm, it may take several days of not touching it before it can regain its reactiveness.

I believe that after a couple of times of 'teasing' it slows down significant in its closing each time it happens thereafter
and eventually, won't close altogether.
 
I have had the same experience with my VFT. Some of the older traps wont close at all even with plenty of stimulation. And even a trap that close on a false alarm reopened and wouldn't close again after that. I Think that the "hairs" involved in the trigger proccess only have a single fire in them and if used they wont be able to fire again. I have noticed that each trap does have several "trigger hairs" though. I am not even close to sure about this but call it an educated guess.
 
all of the above resons could be the cause, but judgeing by the time of year, their is also a large chance your plant is going dorment
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