Venus Fly

The venus fly trap is a carnivorous plant. That means that it gets some of its nutrients from eating living things like insects and spiders. If you’ve never seen a venus flytrap before, they look like a flower with mouths at the ends of some of the leaves. The “mouths” look like they have teeth all the way around them and they are opened wide until they are ready to eat. The venus fly trap isn’t going to try to eat until its prey lands on it or moves across it two times. It waits because it doesn’t want to waste its energy closing on a leaf or something else that is not edible. The venus flytrap doesn’t have brains, but it would sure seem to since it is smart enough to count to two. The trap of the venus flytrap will also close when the teeth, which are actually called trigger hairs, are bent enough so that the plant knows there is an insect on it.

The trap closes very quickly, but it doesn’t close all the way at first. Some botanists (plant scientists) think that it leaves room for tiny insects to escape because they aren’t big enough to give the venus fly trap enough nutrients to live on. Venus flytraps live in a small, swampy area near Wilmington, North Carolina. They have also been seen growing in some South Carolina bogs, the Pine Barrens in New Jersey, and in Northern Florida. The venus fly trap lives best in areas with a lot of moisture and little nitrogen, and it gets the nitrogen it needs to survive from the nutrients of the bugs that it eats. Venus fly traps are very popular house plants. Some people buy them to help to control the fly population in their house, but most people buy venus fly traps because they are very cool to watch.

Venus flytraps are great conversation starters, too, so lots of people like to put them out in a visible place or in the middle of the table that guests sit around when they come to visit. It is difficult to simulate the swampy area that venus fly traps thrive in, but venus fly trap care is fairly simple. You need to be sure to keep them watered and well drained. It is a good idea to keep a plate under the plant, not only for the excess water to drain into, but also to hold about an inch of water in order to make it humid around the plant. Venus fly traps like the humidity. There is no need to feed venus flytraps in most cases. Venus fly traps will find and capture their own food, which helps to keep the flying insects in your house to a minimum.