In short, yes, yes they can. A venus flytrap can eat mealworms. I’ll give you the short and sweet answer below, then we will discuss the proper techniques when feeding a venus flytrap mealworms.
Feeding Venus Flytraps Mealworms
A venus flytrap can eat mealworms. You can feed them both dried or live mealworms. It’s better to feed them live mealworms as the squirming insect will trigger the venus flytrap to seal and release its enzymes for digestion. Make sure the mealworm is no bigger than 1/3 the size of the trap or it will be too much for the venus flytrap to try and digest. Too much food will not digest correctly and can harm your venus flytrap. If you feed your flytrap a dried mealworm, make sure you lightly massage the outside of the trap to trigger the secondary seal so it will release the enzymes to digest the insect.
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Do Venus Flytraps Eat Mealworms?
Mealworms make a great and nutritious snack for your venus flytrap. They make a great snack, but it’s important that you ask yourself the question, does your venus flytrap need to eat mealworms?
The answer to that is probably not. Especially if you are growing your venus flytrap outside. Odds are you do not need to feed your venus flytrap any insects at all. Odds are it’s getting all the insects it needs just by being outside. Even if they are inside, they are usually catching houseflies or spiders.
Maybe a better question is, do you need to ever feed your venus flytraps any insects? The answer is probably not. Many people like to do this to show their friends or do it for fun on occasion. The truth is however, most venus flytraps just need a healthy does of sun and feeding them mealworms or other insects just isn’t necessary.
If Not Mealworms Or Insects, What Do They Eat?
Venus flytraps can actually live just fine without insects. Someone explained this to me this way one time, since then it’s made way more sense.
Venus flytraps are native to the North and South Carolina area. They are very hardy as they survive in the hot sun during the summer and freezing temperatures during the winter. They are a perennial plant that goes into a dormancy period.
The reason they eat insects is the soil they thrive in is almost completely devoid of any nutrients. They have evolved to live without their soil. They get almost all their energy and growth from the sun. The best thing you can do for your venus flytrap is give it a full days worth of sun. Mealworms and insects can help, but you have to be careful.
An insect or mealworm is like the fertilizer. You can give your flytrap some fertilizer but too much can kill them. Too much fertilizer for any plant can cause a lot of harm. It’s the same if you feed your venus flytrap too many insects. One trap per plant should only be fed one insect per every week or two. This will give them all the extra nutrients they need to survive.
I Really Want To Feed My Flytrap Mealworms
Okay, okay… I totally get it, it’s really cool to feed venus flytraps insects. Mealworms are great because you can easily put them in the trap and they don’t get away. Which makes them almost a perfect candidate to feed to a flytrap. You can actually feed your venus flytrap live and dried meal worms. Each way though, will require a little different method.
Get live meal worms by clicking below on Amazon.
Click Here For Live Mealworms On Amazon
To feed a venus flytrap a live mealworm you won’t have to do a lot. Grab a pair of plyers or your fingers and place the meal worm in the trap and let the venus flytrap do its thing. One thing that is very important is that you make sure the mealworm is not bigger than 1/3 of the venus flytrap. Anything larger can be hard for the venus flytrap to digest and can harm it.
Once you have the mealworm the right size (you might have to cut it in half depending on the size of your trap) you just place the wiggling worm into the trap. The worm will trigger the hairs that closes the trap. If the worm continues to wiggle, it will trigger the secondary response from the flytrap and it will close even tighter.
This secondary trigger is an evolutionary trait that prevents a false positive for the venus flytrap. They expel a lot of energy closing their trap and releasing the digestive enzymes. If it closes and releases the enzyme and it’s just a leaf on the inside, it can harm the plant. When the trap closes and nothing is moving that secondary trigger doesn’t happen and the trap opens back up.
This helps the trap only move forward with digesting a real insect. It will need the nutrients from the insect if it goes through the process of closing and releasing it’s enzymes.
Dried Mealworms
You can get dried mealworms on Amazon as well!
Click Here For Dried Mealworms On Amazon
Can you believe we live in a time where you can buy live and dried mealworms online and have them shipped to your home? Craziness!
To feed a venus flytrap a dried mealworm, you will have to work a little harder. It will be simple to trigger the initial trap closing but it can be a little harder to make the flytrap trigger that secondary response that sends the digestive enzyme.
Once the trap closes, you want to gently massage the outside of the trap head. You will want to gently squeeze it closed tighter. Do this every 30 seconds or so for the next several minutes. This should trigger the hair on the inside after the trap closes and it should release the digestive enzymes.
If you want to learn more about feeding a venus flytrap, I have an entire guide on it below.
How To Feed A Venus Flytrap
Conclusion
Can venus flytraps eat mealworms? I know it’s really tempting to make our venus flytraps eat mealworms but sometimes the best thing we can do for them is to just let them be. They will eat all the sun they need and should catch enough insects when left outside.
If you want to show off to a friend from time to time, that’s 100% acceptable. Just make sure not to overfeed the flytrap and make sure the mealworm is 1/3 or smaller so the venus flytrap can digest it.
These rules pretty much apply to feeding your flytrap any kinds of insects, but mealworms do work great if your dead set on feeding your venus flytrap.
If you want to learn all about feeding a venus flytrap and overall care, make sure to check out my venus flytrap care guide below! You can learn everything you need to know about growing and caring for a venus flytrap.
Ultimate Venus Flytrap Care Guide
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