How to feed carnivours house plants?

[frontiergirl53]

So I am creating a terrarium for my carnivorous house plants. So far I have a couple Venus fly traps, and I want to get pitcher plants, ect. There's not a lot of insects around now, how should I feed them?

 

[so lucky]

Maybe you could start raising some meal worms. What ever the plants don't eat, you can feed to the birds. You can probably find live meal worms at the pet store or bait shop.
I have raised them for several years. Chickens love them. Venus Fly Trap--can't vouch for them. But between the meal worm, the larvae and the beetle, I bet there is some part of that critter they would find appealing.

 

[Carol Dee]

I know pet shops sell crickets. The little light colored ones to feed certain reptiles I think.

 

[Smart Red]

A small piece of hamburger will make them just as happy as a cricket or meal worm. I used to visit a student's farm when I needed winter arthropod protein. The warmth of all the cow bodies kept flies alive all winter long. I'd go there and pick a few of the slower flies off the wall.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

I'd recommend the meal worms or crickets. If you do decide to go the hamburger route make sure that it's a very small piece. I've had several fly traps die that way - their digestive juices weren't strong enough to dissolve it in time and the hamburger lead to rot. The Monkey Cups (Nepenthes) that I had did great with it (they've been known to catch birds and rodents in the wild).
You can also keep an eye out for house spiders or house crickets. Being in Arizona you could probably through scorpions in their (detail them to be safe, if they do happen to escape the terrarium).

 

[Nyboy]

How often do they need to eat ?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'd recommend the meal worms or crickets. If you do decide to go the hamburger route make sure that it's a very small piece. I've had several fly traps die that way - their digestive juices weren't strong enough to dissolve it in time and the hamburger lead to rot. The Monkey Cups (Nepenthes) that I had did great with it (they've been known to catch birds and rodents in the wild).
You can also keep an eye out for house spiders or house crickets. Being in Arizona you could probably through scorpions in their (detail them to be safe, if they do happen to escape the terrarium).

Actually, hamburger is no good for carnivorous plants, despite what a lot of old books say. It's TOO rich in protein. Give a piece of hamburger to a Venus flytrap and it will literally burn out that leaf and kill it.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Actually, hamburger is no good for carnivorous plants, despite what a lot of old books say. It's TOO rich in protein. Give a piece of hamburger to a Venus flytrap and it will literally burn out that leaf and kill it.

So that's what the problem is! I just thought that the hamburger sitting there for so long caused the leaf to rot along with it.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

No, it's a download thing. The enzymes in a Venus flytrap are designed to deal with the levels of protein to be found in a standard insect, where it has to be filtered through a lot of chitin (which the plant can't digest) so uptake is a lot slower. And even at that point, a leaf wont work forever (I think they said that on average a Venus leaf can catch about three insects before their movements damage the trigger hairs badly enough that the leaf can't close right. Giving it a piece of hamburger, which is MUCH richer in protein (insects are touted as a good protein source for humans because their protein is a lot lower in "bad" things (saturated fats, LDL cholesterol etc.) that standard animal is, and their culture is a lot more efficient (in terms of how much usable energy you get out versus how much you had to put in) NOT because they have more energy per unit) more or less "overloads" the leaf and it dies.

Pitcher plants can handle it because 1. they are a lot bigger and 2. they have bacteria actually living in the water inside them that can do a lot of the breaking down for them. And even then I don't think there exists a carnivorous plant big enough that vertebrates are its STANDARD form of food (well with the possible exception of that unidentified carnivores plant from India that was supposedly exhibited at the Crystal Palace in the 1880's that was supposedly so big that it could digest a couple dozen mice PER DAY)

That's also the reason that, in all likelihood most of the legendary "man eating plants" (the Man eating-Tree of Madagascar, the Vampire tree of Belize, the Octopod tree of the Amazon, the Monkey-Trap etc.) are probably less cryptobotany and more complete fabrications.