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Best housefly catcher

My venus fly trap takes a very long time to kill flies, like a day. Does anyone know
a more effective species that can prefarably live indoors?
 
Chinese praying mantis! They eat and eat and eat! :D

The larger dews like the D. binata & related species are large and sticky enough for houseflies, the little rosetted ones like spathualata are lucky if they get fungus gnats. Sarracenias catch lots but they also kind of attract them at the same time!

I don't know if you can really rely on them as pest control (perhaps a whole balcony full) but rather just rejoice on the times they happen to get them.
 
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---------- Post added at 06:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:27 PM ----------

oops swords beat me to it LOL
 
Not allowed to release the Idolomantis outside though. You can release the Chinese guys.

Here I am hatching flies INSIDE my house for them! :D
 
The best fly catchers in my opinion are Sarracenia, namely S. flava and S. leucophylla, unfortunately these don't grow too well indoors unless you have a South, East, or West facing window that gets a ton of sunlight.
Some of the larger sundews can catch house flies, but in general they are better at catching small flies (fungus gnats/fruit flies).
Your best chance inside is a Nepenthes as they can grow very large, you'll have to ask someone else which species is best as I have very little experience with Nepenthes.

I would agree with swords and uphwiz that Chinese Mantids are also exceptional, albeit not plants.
 
I read that cape sundews can catch alot of flies on a very bright windowsill.
My windowsill is enought to grow a healthy VFT with pink traps, is this enought?
 
Never know until you give it a try, find what works for you. Cape Sundews do catch a lot of flies - at least in my apartment, and they are fairly cheap and easy to find.
 
A 10 year old boy....
 
I haven't seen a single plant of mine eat those blue bottle flies or whatever they're called other than a forked leaf sundew - it's not binata because it's got more branches than just two, but it didn't come to me labeled and it's a mutt likely. Here's a clickable pic of it in with some other stuff - it's the one in the middle of the pot with the long stalks/leaves and then the dewy part unfurling like horns:

 
  • #10
i9d have to say nepenthes ventrata. Its a hybrid between two of the eisiest to grow neps. and have 6 inch plus pitchers. planty large enough for a half inch fly. they do great on a sunny windowsill and a large plant can have up to 20 pitchers at one time. in my truncata i have next to my ventrata i found that it caught 6 flies in one night that i left the window open by accident.
 
  • #11
i would like to say it is D.filiformis, i can spot new victims every day!!
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