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Felt like posting some pics

Well, I was bored, and so I decided to take some pics of my VFT. It's nothing new, just that it is growing alot.

Some trap pics:


vft16web.jpg


vft17web.jpg


Dead fly:
vft18web.jpg


vft19web.jpg


This is why I never feed my VFT sowbugs:
vft20web.jpg


And plant:
vftplant4web.jpg


-Ben
 
Ben, The pic of "never feed them sowbugs" is normal die back starting on the trap. Its lifespan is over! It is not rotting from eating the sowbug. That looks entirely different from "die back".
 
Actually, that trap has been closed for nearly a month, and it was a perfectly healthy, new trap that hadn't been closed before. That happened with another trap when I fed it a sowbug. Any other bugs are digested in like 3-5 days.

-Ben
 
AH!!! That is even different from "die back"! I have noticed sometimes that the trap seems to get "glued" together from some of its secretions and whatever it broke down in the insect. When it started to dry inside the trap, along the margins, it creates a sticky, gluey substance that does not allow the trap to open. It could be several other things too, but that sounds like what is happening to me. I would know more being there and seeing it with my own eyes, but I think that is what happened to the trap. I have noticed in "glued" traps that they have a tendency to die back early because the trap has been rendered ineffective and unable to operate.
 
Possibly, though I think that my plant cannot digest the hard shells of the sow bugs, and there is really no 'meat' inside them, just hard, crunchy shells.

-Ben
 
Ben, VFT's do not dissolve the hard exoskeleton of the insect. Only the soft innards are digested. However, how they react to various insects depends on many things, including heat, light, humidity, general health, and just plain old this is the way it goes sometimes. I still think the traps interacted with something in the sowbugs that turn the VFT secretions into a thickened mixture, and sealed the trap. It has happened to me mostly in terrarium growing, rarely outside.
 
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