Venus fly traps

A swamp plant so must be kept topped up, had one a few years back. Mine died because I went on holiday and it was accidentally overlooked.

The traps look a bit grim when they open up having devoured a fly! I woke up one morning and it had eaten a large moth! Sprouts flowers during the growing phase. Fascinating to watch if you do happen to witness it in action. Careful not to overdo tripping the traps too often as I believe they die.

Agree with @godinman easy to keep as long as you keep an eye on the water levels.
 
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Intriguing, used to see them in the garden section of a local department store and always fancy getting one. I'm not green fingered so if there fairly easy to look after I might pick one up when I next pass.
 
they are a novelty with little effect overall, get an electrified bat and whack them every time you see a few flying around. You can kill several of them in seconds while the fly trap might get one that day if its lucky
 
Used to have Venus Fly Traps as a kid. Just don't use tap water on them. Their roots are very sensitive to minerals and chemicals. Distilled or rain water is best.
I think the pitcher plants are probably more effective at collecting flies.
 
I grow several carnivorous plants including Venus Fly traps, Sundews and Pitcher plants. They are extremely easy to grow and look after but people in this country make two fatal mistakes with them which leads to poor health plants that die early:

1) These are not indoor plants. They are bog plants that are used to being outdoors on flat land fully exposed to blazing sun in summer and frost and snow in the winter. They need full sun to be healthy.
2) People water them from the tap - which will kill them very quickly. Rainwater or distilled/reverse osmosis water only. Tap water has far too many mineral in and will kill the plants.

Outside they will catch plenty of bugs and be self-sustaining.
 
They like a lot of water and distilled/rain at that. Forget watering once and they are done for. As above, they naturally live in waterlogged, mineral sparse soil, hence needing insects to supply them with a source of nitrogen. Fascinating plants.
 
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They're OK but the name is a bit of a lie. They're better designed at catching crawling bugs rather than flies. Maybe a pitcher plant would be better?

I had one the summer before last. I'd feed it flies that I had managed to smack out of the air and pop them into the trap whilst they were stunned. Had to remember to gently massage the trap after the fly went in to make sure it would seal up to digest the treat.

I don't know why I was so shocked but I even kept it alive long enough to flower. Was surprised when it did it but then I remembered it's a plant and how else would it spread! Quite funny seeing the flower stalk get absurdly high, within context of how small the plant it, just to not risk eating potential pollinators.
 
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