I have a couple of venus fly traps that need help.?

Question

We got two venus fly traps to take care of some little moths we had this spring. The moths are now gone, and my venus fly traps are starting to turn black and die off. Are they hungry? We have kept them in a bright window with high humidity, and there really aren't many bugs for them to eat in the house. I have caught a few bugs to feed them by hand, but not sure if we are doing something wrong. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Do not feed them anything other than raw insects.  However, feeding them is the least likely problem that is causing them to be sick.

There are really only 3 keys to keeping a Venus Fly Trap healthy:

1) Lots of light -- at least 4 hours of direct sunlight a day

2) Clean water -- rain, distilled or reverse osmosis water only.  Or water that has been verified to have a TDS (total dissolved solids measurement) of less than 50 ppm

3) Proper soil - peat moss, sphagnum or peat moss or sphagnum mixed with perlite or clean sand.

Humidity isn't all that important.  I have about a hundred plants that I grow outside here in Boulder, CO where the humitidy drops below 20% during the day.  Your plants would be healthiest if you grew them outside.

If you haven't been using clean water, you will need to repot the plants ASAP.  That is probably what is causing their sickness.  The minerals build up in the soil and make the plants sick.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask them on the forum of my site:

http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3

Answer 2

I think you can feed them hamburger, raw. Just a tiny bit, like a bug size.