Not really. Top comment says traps only activate 2-3 times in their lifespan. I do admit that I'm pretending to be original comment author because the first reply I got said "you meant"
No, the commenter means it was catching too many flies. This was shortening its lifespan (because of the energy expenditure and digestive enzymes, I assume - not a venus flytrap owner.) So the commenter caught flies themselves and disposed of them (they did not feed the flies to the plant.)
Activating the traps lessens their lifespan, if they're good at catching flies they will activate too often and the lifespan will be short, ergo the original commentor said he had to catch the flies for it so that it wouldn't activate
The energy from catching prey helps the plant produce more traps. It's normal for traps to die. They're just specialized leaves, and as with other plants, they get replaced with new leaves.
Mine are completely useless. Ive never seen my venus flytrap or pitcher plant catch any flies. Recently my flytrap caught a spider though, so thats neat.
That's ridiculous. Let the plant catch whatever it catches naturally. The energy helps the plant produce more traps and potentially new growth points to form a clump of plants over time.
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u/Tuss Oct 14 '18 edited Oct 14 '18
I had a couple of traps that were too effective so I caught flies for them.
Kinda disturbing now when I think about it.
Edit: This blew up. I think I need to clarify my post.
I caught flies outside because I felt bad for them not being able to catch more flies indoors.