Thank you for stopping by! I’m sure you are here because you either own or are considering owning a Venus Fly Trap and want to know if they will eat mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are arguably the most pesky and annoying insects. Biting you while you’re outside enjoying summer activities and making you itch. Wouldn’t it be nice if our beloved carnivorous plants could take care of them for us?
The short answer to the question “Do Venus Fly Traps eat mosquitoes?” is yes. Venus Fly Traps can eat mosquitoes, but it’s not likely. While the hairs in their mouths are known to be sensitive, mosquitoes are typically too small to trigger them once, let alone twice. Their bodies are small enough to navigate a fly trap’s mouth without triggering a reaction. Feeding a fly trap mosquitoes may not be the best option as the energy the fly trap uses might be more than what they get from the mosquito.
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Do Venus Fly Traps Eat Mosquitoes?
Since Venus Fly Traps are engineered to require their hairs to be triggered twice before going in for the kill, it is unlikely that a mosquito will become trapped inside. Although the chances are low, Venus Fly Traps are able to eat mosquitoes and there are no dangers involved!
The second part of this question is whether or not you should feed your venus flytrap mosquitoes. I don’t really recommend using just on mosquito as a meal for your venus fly trap, keep reading below to see more.
Attracting Mosquitoes
When luring in potential prey, Venus Fly Traps use a sweet nectar that will attract the right insects. A perfect example of this is male mosquitoes. Male mosquitoes enjoy nectar and feast on it primarily. These mosquitoes are much more likely to fall into the mouth of a Venus Fly Trap compared to the female mosquitoes.
The females are the ones that bite you. Female mosquitoes use blood as a food source rather than nectar, which is what the males prefer. It is highly uncommon for a female to be caught inside of a Venus Fly Trap due to the fact that they are not attracted to the nectar. Although it is possible for both types of mosquitoes to be eaten, the females (the annoying ones that bite you) will most likely not be caught inside.
Which Carnivorous Plants Eat Mosquitoes?
Although the Venus Fly Trap might have trouble capturing mosquitoes, some other plants have an easier time. One plant specifically, the Drosera capensis, commonly known as Cape sundew.
Sundews are widely considered some of the easiest carnivorous plants to grow. It is a green and red plant with tentacles that extend out the sides. Insects are attracted to the plant and get stuck to the sticky tentacles. It also flowers for short periods of time during certain seasons. The flowers are typically colored pink and purple. These plants are most useful for houseflies but can also be effective against mosquitoes since any size insect can become trapped.
Can You Feed Venus Fly Traps Dead Mosquitoes?
While it’s unlikely for Venus Fly Traps to capture mosquitoes on their own, is it okay to feed them dead ones? The answer is yes! Feeding your fly trap dead mosquitoes is completely fine. Many people ask this question because of the use of bug traps or mosquito zappers. These devices can either kill or trap mosquitoes and other bugs, and many wonder if it’s okay to feed mosquitoes caught in these traps to their plants.
Although they will eat dead mosquitoes, it may not be the best idea to feed them to your venus fly trap. You will need to put the mosquito in the trap then manually trigger the hairs a few times in order for the fly trap to eat the mosquito. However, doing this requires a lot of energy from the venus fly trap. I don’t suggest just feeding your fly trap just one mosquito.
The amount of energy the venus flytrap will use to eat the mosquito will likely be more energy than they get from the small bodies of the mosquitoes. If you were feeding them a few mosquitoes or maybe a cricket and a couple mosquitoes, that might make more sense! You just want to make sure that when feeding your fly trap you give it enough for it to make sense. They have to use a lot of energy to close the trap and produce everything needed to break the insects body down.
Venus Fly Traps will accept dead mosquitoes as a meal as long as they are manually (and safely) triggered. Dead mosquitoes can be considered an option for carnivorous plant food, but there are many other choices that are far more nutritious!
If you want to learn more about feeding a venus fly trap, check out my in depth guide below for feeding them. We go over every option for feeding them including the option no one ever considers, not feeding them at all. See more below.
What & How To Feed Venus Flytraps
Other Feeding Options
Venus Fly Traps will eat just about any type of insect that lands in their trap as long as it’s small enough. However there are more nutritious options than others – dead and alive! Mosquitoes are definitely not the best option, I have listed some of the best options for feeding your venus fly trap below.
It’s important to note that most fly traps do not need to be fed. Read my article above about feeding fly traps so you understand how much to give them. In most cases they do not need to be fed manually. If you are going to feed your flytrap manually and you don’t want the hassle of catching your own insects, check out below!
Crickets: Crickets are quite possibly the most common source of food for owned Venus Fly Traps and many carnivorous plants. They can also be easily suited to plants of many trap sizes. You can purchase smaller or larger crickets depending on the size of your plant. Anything you’re feeding your Venus Fly Trap should be 1/4 to 1/2 the size of its trap.
You can get crickets either dried or alive. Keep in mind, there is a process to feeding your fly traps dried insects. It’s more manual, you will have to trigger the hairs again after the trap has closed. If you don’t want to deal with that, just use a live cricket. You can actually get dried and live crickets on Amazon below!
Read more above on my guide to feeding fly traps to learn more about feeding them dried insects and how you can complete that process successfully.
- Superior to the European house cricket, Banded...
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- Staple Food - Crickets are an excellent food...
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Meal Worms: These worms are freeze dried and perfect for any species of carnivorous plant. They can be cut up into smaller pieces to suit smaller plants, and can be fed whole to larger ones. Simply re-hydrate them with a few small drops of water and feed them to your plant! Be sure to soak up excess water before feeding.
Same rules for crickets apply to meal worms. You can buy them alive or dried. Check out your options below!
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- 1000 Medium 3/4" Mealworms
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Blood Worms: While the name of these worms may sound a little gross, they are one of the most nutritious things you can feed a fly trap. Similar to meal worms, they can be purchased in bulk and will need to be re-hydrated with water before feeding.
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- Crude protein minimum % Crude fat minimum 2.0%...
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Carnivorous Plant Eating A Mosquito Video
I know this is an article about venus fly traps and mosquitoes, but I think it’s important to point out that sundew carnivorous plants are actually more suited to eat mosquitoes. Check out this video of a mosquito getting stuck to a sundew and the sundew wrapping its waiting arms around it. It’s a fantastic time lapsed video showing a sundew devouring a mosquito.
Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/FGki-FBnlDg
Conclusion
I hope reading this article answered all of your questions! If you were planning on using a Venus Fly Trap to fix your mosquito problem, or get a quick snack for your plants, I hope these alternative methods were helpful to you!
If you are looking to take care and grow a strong venus fly trap, make sure to check out my massive guide for caring for a venus flytrap. We go over every aspect of taking care of a venus flytrap. I think you will find it most useful!