A Feast of Flies

A Venus Flytrap living up to its name

For once, my Venus Flytraps have been living up to their names. This week saw an unprecedented number of flies captured and killed. It's actually very surprising. As most people who grow Venus Flytraps know, most of their prey consists of crawling insects, usually ants. So to catch flies is somewhat odd.

Two Bodies

I haven't written much about my Venus Flytraps this year because they've been quite odd. Winter was harsh on them. I lost more than half. After repotting, several wet microbursts earlier in the summer unseated a lot of plants and they'd been languishing until I moved the VFT bog to its new location.

Yet Another Fly

What's truly odd about my Venus Flytraps is that, with the exception of about three plants, all the plants that survived through winter reverted to typical Venus Flytrap colors and growth patterns. Except for those three plants, none of the others have retained their cultivar traits and nearly all were cultivars. (I had somewhere around 15 plants survive winter and only three retained red coloration or odd trap shape). I wonder if this indicates instability in cultivar traits. 

Yet Another Fly

I am very happy that the Venus Flytraps have decided to chow down on flies, however. Many of them in northern New England are the biting kind. Black Flies are the worst. Fortunately, their season is all but over. Hopefully the casualty count was large enough to have at least a small impact on their numbers next year.

Another Winged Insect

The good news from the Venus Flytrap front is that now that summer is in full swing and temperatures regularly reach the upper 80s and don't fall below 60, the flytraps are doing splendidly. Most have put on quite a bit of new growth and should be strong going into winter. Now, I'll just keep my fingers crossed that winter is still a couple months away.

The Populated Bog

I'll end by pointing out the plant in the rear center. That plant has been producing traps that exceed 1.5" all summer, including one that as 2". As far as I know, it was a typical seed-grown plant, but is now exhibiting B-52-esque growth. Quite odd, but nice.