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Are dried blood worms ok for vfts?

  • Thread starter wezx
  • Start date
Are dried blood worms alright for VFTs?(fish food)ive been trying to find crickets but they are the same size as the trap so i dont think the trap will close propally if i fed the crickets...are dried or frozen worms ok?or meal worms?
 
Hey Wes,
they're ok if you have the patience to stick a little pin inside the trap and trigger the trigger hair every 10 or so minutes for a few hours (if you don't do this, the trap will just open up thinking it "caught" some debris). Otherwise, just put it outside and it will catch it's own dinner.
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I wouldn't bother trying to feed it dried food, just too much work to get the trap to accept it and you risk damaging the trap.  They aren't animals, they do perfectly well without being fed.  Mine is indoors and still manages to catches 2+ or so bugs a month.
 
mine havent caught a bug in a month!... so those dried worms are ok?
 
Venus flytraps require live prey. After the plant closes on its prey, the trap is still stimulated by the insect struggling to escape. This struggle tells the plant that what it has closed on is alive and it can be digested. If the prey does not move, ie freeze dried blood worms, the plant is not simulated and reopens. This saves the plant from wasting energy trying to digest pebbles, leaves, and other debris that may fall into a trap and stimulate the trigger hairs. If the trap closed and tried to digest a rock, it would exhaust a large amount of energy and not gain anything by doing so.

A way to "fool" the plant into thinking a freeze dried blood worm, dead cricket, etc., is to place the dead food source on a toothpick and let the plant close around the toothpick and the food source. A few times an hour the toothpick should be moved, carefully, to fool the plant into sensing that the object it has closed on is a food source. Once fooled, the plant will contiue the digestive process.

Hope this helps.
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if the food source is small enough you can also shake the trap around gently.  I have done this many times wich much success.

Ktulu

ps. you would have to do this a few times over an hour or so
 
This is a little off topic but aren’t blood worms dried mosquito larva??  I thought i heard this somewhere and i was wondering if it was true.  Thanks!


       -buckeye
 
ok thx for the information... so now i just have to buy those dried or frozen blood worms (fish food)... must i unfreeze it or treat the food first
 
Hi Wezx Welcome to the forums..
Im going to have to agree with Schloaty on this one. Before you go through all the hassle of feeding the blood worms, Just set your plant outside for a couple hours. VFTs are VERY good at catching bugs all on their own. You will probably find that in  an hour or 2 you will have one very well fed VFT at no cost or effort on your part.

Good luck
Steve
 
  • #10
Let me add this:

If you don't live in a particularly buggy area, try setting the vft outside at night under your porchlight.  I did that one time for grins, and EVERY SINGLE trap was closed the following morning...
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  • #11
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (buckeye @ Aug. 06 2003,06:12)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Nope they are different. Bloodworms are bottom dwellers named Chironomus and mosquitoes larvae float just below the surface.
BUT... the most recent bloodworms I bought contained mosquito larvae. I bought a different brand and got bloodworms that time.

Kirk
Fitchburg, Mass

This is a little off topic but aren’t blood worms dried mosquito larva??  I thought i heard this somewhere and i was wondering if it was true.  Thanks!


       -buckeye[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Nope they are different. Bloodworms are bottom dwellers named Chironomus and mosquitoes larvae float just below the surface.
BUT... the most recent freeze-dried bloodworms I bought contained mosquito larvae. I bought a different brand and got bloodworms that time.

Kirk
Fitchburg, Mass

This is a little off topic but aren’t blood worms dried mosquito larva?? I thought i heard this somewhere and i was wondering if it was true. Thanks!


-buckeye
 
  • #12
I have one thing to add...frozen food should be thawed, you don't want the trap to get frost bit...well, too things I guess...as far as the dried food, you should let it soften a bit in distilled water prior to feeding.
 
  • #13
Buying some small live crickets is also a good way to feed your plants. I have also used meal worms and earwigs.
 
  • #14
I looooooooove feeding my plants earwigs. I absolutely despise those little bugs. They are sooo ugly. I fed one to my nep once and it gave me the most satisfaction watching the pitcher quiver as the bug drowned.LOL

Wes
 
  • #15
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Nope they are different.  Bloodworms are bottom dwellers named Chironomus and mosquitoes larvae float just below the surface.
BUT... the most recent freeze-dried bloodworms I bought contained mosquito larvae. I bought a different brand and got bloodworms that time.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>


I just bought some bloodworms for my fish and under the contents list it said mosquito larva.  So they must not be real bloodworms.  I guess it's kind of like dried decorative green moss being sold as sphagnum.  Oh well...



      -buckeye
 
  • #16
Somewhat off the topic, lightening bugs are neat to feed a nepenthes. The pitchers blink, for a few minutes anyway.
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  • #17
What on earth are lightening bugs?
 
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