If you have decided to purchase Venus Flytraps and leave them at home, you probably question yourself whether it is safe to feed ants to this plant or not. As you are already aware, the Venus Flytraps are carnivorous plants and ingest all sorts of small insects, including flying insects. In full nature, Venus Flytraps also eat ants. Ants supply certain sustenance to these plants.
The question is whether you should give Venus Flytrap ants if you keep it as a houseplant or not. In this post, we will provide a detailed explanation of why the ant-feeding process can be harmful and how should Venus Flytraps eat ants.
Can Venus Fly trap eat ants?
Venus Flytraps’ diet doesn’t consist of flying creatures only. It also includes all kinds of other insects. Usually, the size of creatures matters, and tiny ants are perfect for almost all Venus Fly Traps. Why are the ants attracted to the Venus Flytrap?
Venus Flytraps are known for the production of sweet nectar on top of their leaves.
This sweet liquid serves to attract prey, which includes ants. In its natural habitat, Venus Flytraps are not tall carnivorous plants. Due to that fact, the leaves are located near the ground. That makes it quite simple for the Venus Flytrap to catch black ants and other insects.
Venus flytrap consumes all kind of insects as they help to get enough nutritional value to its diet.
This carnivorous plant can grow without ingesting any bugs, just it benefits from it a lot. Especially in the native habitat, where the soil doesn’t contain enough minerals.
Is it harmful for the Venus Flytrap to eat ants?
People who own the Venus Flytrap carnivorous plant don’t suggest adding the dead ants to the plant’s diet. If your Venus Flytrap is being taken care of, and it looks good and healthy, there shouldn’t be any issues with offering the plant ants. Bear in mind if Venus flytraps eat ants when they are unhealthy, it will be too difficult for them to cope with bugs and digest them.
This might cause a situation where your Venus Fly trap dies. Just remember, if your outdoor plant has digested a few ants and nothing happened, it is safe to say your Venus Flytrap can safely ingest bugs, dead ants, and other insects without any issues.
Venus Flytraps that grow at home can be tested by you to see if the ants harm them. Irritate the trigger hairs of the plant’s trap with pincers to make the plant open it. Then place the food inside and watch how the trap closes. Now it is time to observe the way Venus Flytrap will cope with food. If something goes wrong, the trap will become black and shed.
That doesn’t mean that the Venus Fly trap itself is about to die. Another head with trigger hairs sprouts on the plant.
How to feed Venus Fly Traps with ants?
If you have never encountered issues feeding your Venus Flytraps ants, you should follow the correct process. It is important for the successful result and keeping your plants happy. When you grow the plant inside, and it doesn’t have access to an ant infestation, you have to help it maintain a healthy diet.
1. Choose the type of ants
Feeding live ants is quite a challenging task. They constantly run away and because they are tiny, it is difficult to catch them again. Even if you manage to put an ant into the trap, it won’t be able to close fast. The chances for the ant running away are quite high. We recommend giving ants that have been killed.
2. Touch the trigger hairs
Venus Flytrap plant is clever and only closes the trap once the hairs have been touched by the prey twice. It has to happen within the short time frame for the trap to respond. So once you place food inside, gently stroke the hairs to make the plant close its trap.
3. Keep stimulating
It is important to continue irritating the hairs inside the trap to imitate the behavior of live prey. Only then the trap will shut completely. When the trap is fully closed, the digesting process begins.
FAQ
How do you feed Venus fly trap ants?
It is better to offer dead insects to your Venus Flytraps. Then you eliminate the chances of them escaping from the traps. You stimulate the hairs inside the trap until the plant closes it.
Can Venus flytrap digest insects?
Venus Flytraps just like some pitcher plants can consume bugs. Most of them won’t be affected by it and will actually benefit from getting certain nutrition.
Can my Venus fly trap eat mosquitoes?
This plant can catch a mosquito and successfully digest it, as long as it belongs to small species.
Can a Venus fly trap eat earthworms?
They usually do not earthworms, as those do not crawl on plants. There is no way a Venus Flytrap can catch one. The worms are also too big to digest.
What else can you feed Venus Flytrap with?
Venus Flytrap eats different kinds of small insects. That includes fruit flies, tiny spiders, and even wasps. Bugs that have hard shells are typically not good for the plants, as it is quite difficult to digest them.
When you don’t have time to deal with catching bugs and feeding them to your plants, fish food is the perfect substitution for insects. Especially as the nutritional content is similar.
At the end
Now you know that Venus Fly traps eat ants. You have to monitor the health state of your plants, though. If they have any issues with digesting any sort of bugs, it might cause them to lose their traps. The plant has to look healthy in order to cope with eating ants.
Venus Flytraps grown indoors will need your help with feeding them. You will have to follow the step-by-step process described above in our article to achieve the result you are happy with. If this post was helpful, please share it with your friends and other people who love Venus Flytraps. If you still have questions left, contact us in the comment section below.
