Feeding bugs to your plants!

[The Evil Spider Hunter]

Ok, I have been wondering how exactly do you feed carnivourous plants - do you allow them to catch their own bugs or do you have to actually give them bugs by hand? I have my CPs in a terrarium and I am not sure that they are actually catching anything - I do have some darn gnats in my apartment

and I would love for my plants to catch some of them and eat them!

Should I leave the lid off my terrarium now and then and allow the plants to do their thing? I am somewhat worried a little bit about this as I do not want my plants to starve you know?

Should I collect bugs on my own and handfeed my plants? I look forward to any info on this from all you fellow CPer's out there!

The Evil Spider Hunter

 

[Spectabilis73]

Some people say that they dont need to be fed, but imo, they do well for a short time and die after 2 years or so... Carnivorous plants catch insects cause they live in soil with little to no nitrogen and minerals- they get their nutrients from bugs they catch

. Some people also say they store the nutrients in their rhisomes, and use the nutrients in winter to be able to live through dormancy. I let my plants catch their own food, but all the time I catch food for them and hand feed them, they seem to do better that way (they get to eat more insects, IOW, get more nutrients etc)
I will have some spare drosera intermedia seeds soon, let me know if you want any

.
-Spec

Oh, and the answer to your questions

If the humidity outside the terrarium is high enough (60%+)
Feed them by hand too

 

[Ozzy]

I put most of mine outside and let them fend for themselves. When they are outside they are pigs. I looked into my pitcher plants yesterday and it had caught so many bugs that they were above the water level. The ones on top were still alive and tring to get out. Of course I did the right thing, I added more water. All my other plants are full too, vtf's and sundews. When I have mine inside they don't seem to attract the bugs like they do when they are outside.

Oh, don't worry your plants won't starve to death. They don't have to eat.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Ozzy,

I have the same problem. It got so bad with the pitcher plants pigging out that the traps would rot, so I have taken to stuffing their mouths with some cotton balls. Recently I switched to LFS plugs, and this seems even better. for the first time ever my pitchers look nice, instead of slowly rotting.

My sundews are usually black with flys and gnats, and literally every trap of my VFT's capture prey as soon as they open. If I want to see an open trap I have to bring the plants inside.

The plants get most of their sustainance from photosynthesis, and can go a loooong time without prey capture. They do grow much better if they are allowed to capture prey though as Spec pointed out.