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Vft's rock!

After getting my VFT's I went searching for things to feed it. There was a hard-shelled beetle thingy that was in the wrong bathroom at the wrong time. I promply stuffed him in. When the trap finally reopened a few days later, the beetle was dead, but didn't look digested at all! I poked the dead beetle, and it turns out it was just a hollow exoskeleton. My VFT sucked all the juices out of the poor sucker! VFT's rock!
 
When I lecture High Schoolers, they always refer to the flys in the traps. They don't look eaten to me is the most common comment. When I remove the carcass of the fly, they all gather around to see. Then, I poke and prod the carcass until its powder and ask the kids, "where are the innards?" They definitely get the point. If it were human, the only thing left would be bone!
 
I thought that hard-shelled insects were bad for vfts?
 
I have had mixed results with hard shelled insects. So far it seems to be about 50/50 if the trap turns black or not.
 
If it were me I would steer slear of the hard shelled bugs because they are more apt to carry bacteria and harder for your VFT to clean with its digestive juices.
 
Doesn't really matter if the bug is hard shelled or not... vfts digest virtually all bugs just fine. There are a few exceptions like lady bugs,and some other things. Most of the time a trap goes black is because of indigestion or contamination once digestion process has already begun. The bacteria already on the bugs don't really matter, or all traps would rot, since flys and other bugs aren't the cleanest things in the world LOL.
 
They do eat anything. Hard shelled insects have numerous gaps in between the armour - it enables them to move. Digestive juices have no problem getting in through these weaknesses.

Rotting traps only happens occasionally and can happen whatever the insect. Insects that are too big will increase the chance of this happening, but equally most of the time they can eat massive bugs no problem.
Death of traps may be made more likely if the plant is in stagnant air.
 
About the only thing I've had trouble with is chopped earthworms; seems to burn the trap 75% of the time.

Some people say fire ants also burn; but I can't confirm this.
 
  • #10
No wonder my best trap died, I fed it a ladybug. darn!!!
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  • #11
So the lady bugs are bad for traps? Is there any reaso for this? That must be what happened to my traps on my first batch of VFTs a year ago. I fed it lady bugs.
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