Venus Flytrap (Potted Adult)

Each Venus Flytrap is a healthy full grown adult ready to eat some BUGS! 
Each available plant is listed with an individual photo of the exact plant you'll be receiving. 

READ BELOW FOR MORE DETAILED TIPS :)

Venus Flytrap Care Tips 
Bringing your new baby home
-Once you receive your plant, carefully remove the tape off of the pot. Venus Flytraps typically like a lot of filtered light. However, make sure the plant is being introduced very gradually to prevent further shock or burning. If you are using a grow light, put your new plant at the edge of the light so it's still receiving light, but not in direct light. 

-Plants may arrive with a couple of dead "heads" which is completely normal. Heads die off after closing a certain number of times, or due to stress (moving or transplanting any plant results in stress); just carefully remove those dead heads and gradually introduce the plant to sunlight or a grow light. 

-DO NOT TRANSPLANT RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. It is best to re-pot Venus Flytraps in early spring. 

Light
A grow light is not necessary, but is highly recommended, especially indoors.

We recommend a light that produces light between 400-600 nm like this one (they're very affordable at about $40): 
https://comogrow.com/super-sprouter-t5-ho-18-in-grow-light-blister-pack/

At least 10 hours of direct light with an indoor grow light, or at least 6 hours of direct sunlight with 2-4 hours of indirect sunlight 

Grow Medium and Container Size
Venus Flytraps should be planted in slightly acidic (pH 3.5-4.9), inert (containing NO nutrients/fertilizer in the mix) medium that holds water well such as long fiber sphagnum moss or our Carnivorous Plant Mix available here:
https://comogrow.com/carnivorous-plant-soil-mix/

Remember: DO NOT USE ORDINARY HOUSE PLANT POTTING SOIL! Carnivorous Plants have evolved to grow in nutrient poor soil and are not equipped to draw nutrients with their roots; soil containing nutrients/fertilizer can harm or kill your carnivorous plant. 

Choose a pot that is an inch or 2 larger in diameter than the root ball. Make sure the pot is at least 4" deep to encourage root growth. Choosing the correct pot size will help prevent root rot, so be careful not to put your plant in anything too large. For reference, Venus Flytraps only grow to be about 5" tall and wide at full maturity. 

Feeding & Watering

DO NOT WATER WITH TAP WATER OR BOTTLED DRINKING WATER. Use distilled water, rainwater (depending on how clean the rain is in your area), or reverse osmosis water that has little to no mineral content.
Both tap water and bottled drinking water contain minerals, which the Venus Flytrap is not equipped to process through the roots. These plants receive their nutrients and minerals through the bugs they catch. Using tap water or drinking water will not immediately kill your carnivorous plant, it's just not good to use long term. So, if water without minerals isn't available, it's perfectly fine to use tap or drinking water sometimes. 

Keep the grow medium DAMP at all times. The grow medium should not stay soaking wet. When watering, saturate the grow medium, but allow that grow medium to dry out and become damp beofre watering again. 

Venus Flytraps do not require scheduled feedings to be healthy, and can go extended periods of time without bugs--they will just grow more slowly without being fed.
Venus Flytraps can be fed bugs such as spiders, crickets, or flies once every 2 weeks or so. If the plant is kept outside, the prey naturally available outdoors should be enough so hand feeding isn't required in this scenario. DO NOT FEED HAMBURGER MEAT OR ANY OTHER MEAT.
Keep in mind-- the more prey the Venus Flytrap eats, the more sunlight (and usually water) it will require to process that prey.

DO NOT TOUCH THE HEADS TO WATCH THEM CLOSE WITHOUT ANY FOOD. Although tempting (it is super cool to watch), forcing the "mouths" shut too many times will kill your plant. "Tricking" the plant into closing by touching the mouths will cause the plant to exert energy, causing those individual heads to die off. If the mouths are constantly triggered without food, the plant won't have enough energy to produce new heads, causing the plant to die. 

How to Feed Your Venus Flytrap
When hand feeding a dead bug to your plant, you can use a pair of tweezers to gently move the bug along the hairs lining the plant's "mouth" to simulate a live, moving bug. Once the mouth begins to close, drop the bug and remove the tweezers.
When live prey crawls over the tiny hairs in nature, an electric signal is sent from the hairs to the mouth, causing the mouth to close on the prey (kind of like a nerve response in animals... Cool, right?). Those little hairs also act as a sort of lock that prevents bugs from escaping after the mouth has shut.
Once the prey is trapped, the plant will begin to secrete an acid that breaks the bug down, making it possible for the plant to absorb the nutrients (kind of like digestion in animals). After the plant is finished with this "digestion" process (usually takes a few days), the mouth will open back up, ready for more bugs!
When the mouth opens and closes a certain amount of times, that head will run out of energy and eventually die off.  The nutrients extracted from the prey gives the plant energy to continue producing new heads.