Things You'll Need:
- venus flytrap
- live flies, spider, or crickets
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Step 1
Decide whether you want your flytrap to be an indoor or an outdoor plant. Flytraps that are grown outdoors may not need any feeding help from you. They should be able to attract and eat enough bugs on their own.
If you are growing your venus flytrap indoors, you may need to be feed it live bugs from time to time. This is the fun part! -
Step 2
Skip the fertilizer. If you are going to be feeding your venus flytrap live bugs, you should not need to add fertilizer to the soil. Your plant should get all of the nutrients it needs from the bugs.
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Step 3
Get a live fly, spider or cricket. Grab the bug with tweezers. Do not kill the bug. Place the live bug into the trap of the venus flytrap.
The bug should still be living because it's movements are detected by hairs inside the trap. This signals the trap to close completely. -
Step 4
Pretend the bug is alive. If the bug you have is dead or very weak and not moving, you can try to mimic life by wiggling the bug around gently. This should trigger the closing mechanism.
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Step 5
Resist the urge to overfeed your plant. When the plant opens about 5-7 days after the trap shut, it does not indicate the need to eat again. The venus flytrap can go months without eating. Most experts agree that feeding one or two times a month is more than sufficient.
