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Shoutout to the time my Venus flytrap ate a wasp and got revenge
I was sitting on my porch in Austin last Tuesday, watching my Venus flytrap do its thing, when a wasp flew straight into the open trap and it snapped shut. The trap turned black and died three days later because the wasp was too big for it to digest. Has anyone else had a carnivorous plant die on them from eating something way too large?
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harper_owens5mo ago
Hold up, linda_ward, I gotta push back on that lol. I've had Venus flytraps for like 6 years now, and I've definitely seen a trap die off way faster after catching something too big. Like, remember that time I posted about my 'Cactus Carl' trap? That thing caught a decent sized beetle and turned black in like a day, not the normal 3-4 weeks it takes for a trap to naturally die off. I think there's a difference between the trap just reaching the end of its life and it straight up getting overloaded by a meal. Plus, if you look up how much energy it takes a trap to digest something big, it can stress the whole plant out and stunt new growth for weeks. So yeah, maybe the wasp didn't kill the whole plant instantly, but it definitely messed up that trap way worse than catching a small fly would have.
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linda_ward5mo ago
Actually that trap didn't die because the wasp was too big for it to digest. Venus flytraps can handle wasps just fine - they're actually a perfect size snack for them. The trap dying is just the normal life cycle of a leaf on a Venus flytrap. Each trap only opens and closes about 3-5 times before it naturally turns black and falls off, regardless of what it catches. So your plant wasn't killed by that wasp at all, it was just doing what it normally does. You'll see new traps growing in from the center of the plant soon enough, and those will be ready to catch more wasps for you.
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