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Would "baby" cickets work?

Y

yourlordnsav

Guest
It is currently winter (or winterish at least), and flies are a hard commodety to find now. I haven't seen too many collecting on the dog food dish.. so I can rule it out as a food canidate. Therefore, I was wondering if "baby" crickets I could purchase from the local pet store would be sufficient. (I'll probably get a large amount of dormancy stuff.. but I'd prefer if you could please just answer the questoin. I just bought the trap today.) Thanks, and I appreciate anyones who helps me out. It's a big help.
 
Yourlordnsav,Yes Baby crickets would work. However watch out for rotting traps. In the past I have had traps rot with crickets being digested in them. But i used mature crickets or near maturity. Just use at your own risk. I personally would buy flies from the pet shop if they have any. Hope this helps. Nep.G. ( I didn't tell about dormancy either! So it saved you some
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)
 
I agree, baby crickets are part of the diet of my VFT's. As mentioned this would not be my food of choice, rather spiders, flies, or other softer insects. If your traps are holding up then good. If not then so softer.

Rob
 
Well personly i would just go and put some sort of food outside,attract flies and catch a few of the smaller ones. Either that or go to your rubbish bin and gather up a few maggots,feed them on rotting vedgies until they mature into flies and then feed them to the plant when they r still small.
Yesterday i fed my plant this whoppa of a fly-it was like 2-3cm long and i put it ina like a 3.2cm trap-the trap has closed and is eating it but the fly was so thick the whole trap couldn't close-i guess when the fly has broken down a bit the whole thing will close.
 
Crickets work fine for the plants...just do not give them crayons.

And Mondo..I would be careful that your VFT trap doesn't begin to rot. Sometimes when they cannot close all the way...something else could get in and cause bacteria.

The only thing that I have not had luck with feeding my plants are spiders,,,I think that it is because of them being posionous. They always seem to kill my plants. So they just get scooped up and tossed in the yard.
 
Jeff,

You're weird.

... and *I* have to work with you!
 
LOL Phil and Jeff! What do you mean they are piosonous to VFT's? I just find my tweezers when I see one nab him by his leg and either toss him in a Nepenthes,VFT,Sarracenia,or Sundew,Or whatever looks hungry and Voila he's being digested! I find VFT's find them extemely delicious. Nep.G.
 
Sure, baby crickets should do fine for your plants. Crayons, what's that about, Jaie?
 
Crayons.

Look at the guy who started this post. click his name and see his interests.

Nuf' said


And about the spiders...everytime that I have tried one out...i get no luck with the VFT's. Now maybe other plants can handle them ( or maybe mine just can't).
Anyway...I will feed them anything but spiders (and crayons)
 
  • #10
Ok, cool. I will proceed with the crickets. But bein the "newbie" I am to this mumbo jumbo.. how do you go about "pinching off dead traps" without disturbing them with your fingers. And if I said ta heck with it would it harm my plants? --Yeah and also, I wouldn't blow all my perfectly tastey crayons on my traps. They kinda make me nautius like spiders to ur traps and junk. Word to your mothas... yah hook ups have been phat.. peace im out mothatrapers..
 
  • #11
Don't pinch off traps. get a pair of scissors and cut just the trap off. You can leave the leaf. It will still help with its photo
If you trigger a trap...it will re-open in a day or so.

And each trap can only take so many opening and closings...after that it will either not work(respond) or the trap will die. Just cut the trap off like mentioned above.

It you don't take off the dead trap...the only thing that would happen is that it would spread to the leaf and then you should remove it at that point. If you let it go further...the leaf will rot and you might get some mold/rot on the rest of the plant.
 
  • #12
My Green Dragon caught three daddy long legs this summer, and every trap died after a week or so of digestion... now, DDLL are not true arachnids, but they are highly venemous, and I think there is something in the that birds don't like, as with lady bugs (Which believe it or not I have about EIGHTY of running around in my enclosed deck right now!
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pest control

My general assumption is that if it is poisonous, it won't go over to well in a flytrap, I have had better luck with sars and nepenthes catching DDLL (Or being FED as an expirement)

For those of you wondering, DDLL are poisonous, but their mouths are so tiny and weak they can't break human skin... so they can't hurt you...

But if you have ever had the misfortune of having your head brush up against those 'pulsating love balls' (Where about three hundred of the suckers join up in a ball and have a mating orgy) that is most disxomforting... the whole ball will swarm all over you... ughhh... I hate that...
 
  • #13
Pulsating love ball! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!! Ohh breath Nep.G. Breath! Ohh LOL HA HA HA! Nep.G.
 
  • #14
that's cute Ram

call EMS for Nep G. I think we are in need of some oxygen.

I will have to remember that one...
 
  • #15
Heart monitior tone BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.

Nep.G. :biggrin:
 
  • #16
When was the last time you saw the term "pulsating love ball" in an otherwise G rated forum? I LOVE this sight! If by DDLL you are refering to Harvister mites then they do have some very strong defensive secretions, its the only way they can run around in the daylight without being eaten, however I have regularly fed both harvester mites and spiders to my VFTs and droseras without any problem although I suspect bacteria might set in on the legs then travel down into the trap if the legs are sticking out of the trap on the VFTs. The only problem bug I have experienced is large ants for droseras, killed the whole leaf in a matter of hours!, the VFTs will take them though. Speeking of arthropod defensive secretions, NEVER snif a millipede, don't ask, just don't do it! felt like 5 minutes before I could see and breath again! Ouch.
 
  • #17
Interesting.... I have sniffed all sorts of bugs and have expierenced no ill effects. Only one thing you should NEVER EVER TOUCH OR SNIFF OR WHATEVER ARE VELVET ANTS. These small antlike insects are acutally wingless wasps! A sting like a bullet shot. In other words PAIN! Sometimes commonly reffered to as COW KILLERS since the sting is so painful some say it could kill a mature cow! Nep.G.
 
  • #18
I can't believe you picked up a velvet ant! Definitely a no-go. Owch!

(i've read of them somewhere)
 
  • #19
No No No... I meant to never pick them up! I have seen them but never touched them! But i have seen someone get stung by one. He was hollering up to high heavens! Nep.G.
 
  • #20
My flytrap seems to beable to catch it's own jumping spiders and it loves them!
I was wondering would a flytrap's sudden slowing down of growth have anything to do with eating bugs or heat? Becasue my flytrap suddenly began to grow extremly slowly ever since i fed it a bug a week back i think though it's because the nursery it came from used to use fertilizers to give their flytraps nutrients because they had too many plants in their nursery to go out and find bugs so maybe this is the first time my plant has used it's traps and as a result it got a bit shocked?
Or we have been experiancing temps up to 45degrees celcius for the past week and i think the heat might have slowed it's growth.
 
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