Bacteria

[Flibble]

I think I may be in trouble..
I got my vft's early this morning (well, yesterday technically), and watered them properly, etc etc.. About 8 hours after I got them, I fed my 2 plants both 1 cricket, and my third a fly. The trap that took in the fly worked fine and formed a air-tight seal.. But my crickets didn't work out well! Both have legs sticking out (which looks kinda nasty to me). I read this could cause bacteria to form..

2 questions..
What should I do?
And if bacteria does form, will it kill the entire plant or just the little trappy part?

Can't belive I did this.. Read everything I could about the plant for 2 days

 

[buckeye]

First of all, i don't think you can anything now other than wait for the traps to digest the crickets. Second, I'm not sure you really have anything to worry about.  My vfts have caught spiders that have legs sticking out of the trap and usually, after digestion, the trap reopens with no problems.   If bacteria would happen to get in, only the trap that caught the cricket will turn black.  If this happens then wait until the whole leaf turns black before you cut it off. If you're still worried about your plant, than you can cut off the trap that caught the cricket now and leave the petiole. I hope this helps.


             -buckeye

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Having the legs stick out of the trap increases the chance for fungus or bacteria to get into a trap and kill it.  It won't necessarily happen.  I have had three traps catch daddy longlegs (harvestman) spiders.  The legs were sticking out but the traps are doing fine and have opened again.

 

[RamPuppy]

same here with the daddylonglegs...

unless those are small crickets, I would think they are generally just too large for your plant right now.

at worst the plant will derive a good amount of nourishment from the traps before they go south. when the trap gets all black, and before it starts turning the leaf black, just snip it off.

Your plant will grow many new ones to replace what it lost.