Do carnivorous plants help against flies?

Do carnivorous plants help against flies?

Carnivorous plants catch small insects

Carnivorous plants or carnivores are quite rightly named. They use sticky leaves in large jugs or funnels to catch mosquitoes and small insects that settle on the leaves or get caught in the catching devices.

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However, carnivores only digest a few insects at a time, and only if they are not too big for the traps or the sticky leaves.

Butterwort, sundew and the like can reduce infestation in fruit flies. However, they are powerless against normal houseflies. These are usually much too big.

Use Venus flytraps against flies?

The Venus flytrap is one of the most famous carnivorous plants. It has snap traps that are very noticeable and that strike at lightning speed when insects sit on them. It is therefore often recommended for combating flies.

This rarely works in practice. The prey must not be larger than a third of the folding trap. If the prey is too large, the trap will snap shut, but the digestion process takes a long time for large animals. Often the trap dies afterwards because it has absorbed too many nutrients. Venus fly traps open a maximum of seven times anyway until they die.

Use large carnivorous plants against flies?

There are a few types of carnivore that have traps big enough for flies. These include the pitcher plant, if their pitchers are large enough, and the pitcher plant with its funnel-shaped traps.

Not only do these carnivorous plants need a perfect location, they also require a lot of maintenance.

Pitcher plants also only help against flies if there is liquid in the pitcher. This is not water, but a secretion that the Nepenthes use to digest the insects trapped in the jug.

Tips

Even if it may be irritating, never feed carnivorous plants dead flies or other lifeless insects. The plants only respond to live prey. Dead prey rots in the traps.