Venus Flytrap Care Indoors

Venus Flytrap Care Indoors

I killed my first Venus flytrap in college. Tap water, potting soil, and zero research. It lasted about three weeks before turning into a sad brown mess. When I bought my second one last year, I decided to actually figure out what I was doing wrong. Turns out, these plants are way pickier than I expected, but once you understand their weird needs, they’re not that bad.

If you just brought one home from the store or got one as a gift, this guide will help you keep it alive. I’m going to be honest about the mistakes I made so you don’t repeat them.

Why they need distilled water

This was the number one thing that killed my first flytrap. I watered it straight from the tap like every other plant I owned, and it slowly died. Venus flytraps are extremely sensitive to minerals in water. Tap water contains dissolved salts, chlorine, fluoride, and other stuff that builds up in the soil and basically poisons the roots over time.

In the wild, these plants grow in boggy areas of the Carolinas where they get rainwater. Rainwater is naturally soft and mineral-free. When you water with tap water, those minerals accumulate because flytraps sit in wet soil constantly. There’s no way for the salts to flush out, so they just concentrate and damage the plant.

I use distilled water now. You can buy it at any grocery store for about a dollar a gallon. Some people use rainwater if they can collect it, which is free and works perfectly. Reverse osmosis water also works if you have that system at home. The key thing is keeping the TDS (total dissolved solids) below 50 ppm. You can test your water with a cheap TDS meter if you want to get specific, but honestly, just stick with distilled and you’ll be fine (North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox).

One thing I learned the hard way is that you can’t just switch to distilled water and expect a dying plant to bounce back immediately. If you’ve been using tap water for months, the soil is already loaded with minerals. You might need to repot in fresh media. I’ll get to soil in a minute.

The watering method matters too. I keep my flytrap sitting in a tray with about an inch of distilled water. The soil stays damp this way, which mimics the boggy conditions it needs. I refill the tray when it gets low, usually every few days depending on how warm my apartment is. Some people water from the top, but the tray method is easier and keeps the humidity up.

Feeding: No hamburger meat!

When I first got interested in carnivorous plants, I watched a YouTube video where someone fed their flytrap a tiny piece of hot dog. Do not do this. I know it seems fun to feed them random stuff, but it will kill the traps.

Venus flytraps evolved to catch insects, not processed human food. When you feed them something like meat, cheese, or any non-insect food, it usually rots inside the trap because the plant can’t digest it properly. The trap turns black and dies. I’ve seen this happen in online forums more times than I can count.

Here’s the thing though. You don’t actually need to feed your flytrap at all if it gets enough light. When these plants photosynthesize, they make their own food like any other plant. The bugs are basically just fertilizer, providing extra nitrogen and nutrients they can’t get from the nutrient-poor soil they grow in (Botanical Society of America).

I keep mine on a south-facing windowsill, and it catches the occasional fungus gnat or fruit fly on its own. That’s enough. In summer, I might hand-feed it a small live insect once a month if I remember, but it’s not necessary. If you do feed it, use live insects like flies, small spiders, or ants. The movement triggers the trap to seal properly.

Dead insects can work, but you have to manually stimulate the trigger hairs inside the trap to make it close and start digesting. I’ve done this with freeze-dried bloodworms (the kind sold for fish food), and it worked fine. You just gently tickle the hairs with a toothpick after placing the food inside.

Do not feed every trap on the plant. Each trap can only close a few times before it stops working and eventually dies off naturally. This is normal. If you trigger them constantly just for fun, you’re wasting the plant’s energy. I learned this after obsessively making the traps snap shut when I first got mine. They got exhausted and stopped closing. New traps grew in, but I felt pretty dumb about it.

Also, feed appropriately sized prey. The bug should be about one-third the size of the trap. Anything bigger and the trap might not seal completely, which leads to rot.

Above: A close up look at the symptoms.

Understanding winter dormancy

This is probably the weirdest requirement for keeping a Venus flytrap alive long-term, and most beginners have no idea it’s necessary. These plants need a winter dormancy period, or they will die within a year or two.

In their natural habitat in North and South Carolina, flytraps experience cold winters. Temperatures drop, the days get shorter, and the plants go dormant. They stop growing, the traps die back, and the plant basically rests. This dormancy period is critical for their long-term health. Without it, the plant exhausts itself trying to grow year-round and eventually gives up (International Carnivorous Plant Society).

I keep my flytrap indoors, so I have to artificially create winter for it. Starting in late October or November, I move it to my unheated garage where temperatures stay between 35 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It sits there until late February or early March. During dormancy, the plant looks rough. Most of the traps die back, and you’re left with just a small rosette of low-growing leaves. It’s supposed to look like that.

You still need to keep the soil damp during dormancy, but it doesn’t need as much light. I check on mine every week or two to make sure the soil hasn’t dried out completely. Some people put theirs in the fridge if they don’t have a cold garage or basement. You can store it in a plastic bag with damp sphagnum moss in the crisper drawer. I haven’t tried this method myself because my garage works fine.

The first year I had my flytrap, I didn’t know about dormancy. I kept it on the windowsill all winter with a grow light. It made it through that winter but looked terrible the following summer. Weak growth, small traps, and it barely caught anything. After I gave it proper dormancy the next year, it came back way stronger.

If you live somewhere with mild winters or keep your house heated constantly, you’ll need to plan for this. You can’t skip it. I know it seems stressful to put your plant in a cold garage for months, but it’s the most important thing for long-term survival.

Why traps turn black

When I first saw my flytrap’s traps turning black, I panicked and thought I was killing it again. Turns out, this is completely normal in most cases.

Each individual trap has a lifespan. After it closes a few times and digests a few meals, it eventually dies off. It turns black, shrivels up, and that’s it. The plant grows new traps to replace the old ones. This is just part of the natural cycle. You can trim off the dead traps with scissors if they bother you, but it’s not necessary. I usually leave them unless they’re really crispy and ugly.

That said, there are bad reasons for traps turning black too. If a trap closes on something it can’t digest, like that hamburger meat I mentioned earlier, it will rot and turn black prematurely. If the trap doesn’t seal properly around prey and bacteria gets in, same thing. Overhandling and constantly triggering traps can also cause them to blacken and die early.

Water quality is another cause. If you’re still using tap water, the mineral buildup can stress the plant and cause traps to die off faster than they’re replaced. Low humidity, not enough light, or transplant shock can also lead to excessive blackening (Missouri Botanical Garden).

I’ve noticed my flytrap loses more traps in winter during dormancy, which is normal. In spring and summer when it’s actively growing, it should be putting out new traps faster than the old ones die. If it’s losing traps rapidly and not growing new ones, something is wrong with your care routine.

Above: The tools you need to fix this.

Best soil (No fertilizer!)

Soil was another thing I got completely wrong the first time. I planted my first flytrap in regular Miracle-Gro potting soil because I didn’t know any better. Venus flytraps need nutrient-poor, acidic soil. They evolved in bogs where the soil is mostly peat and sand with almost zero nutrients. Their roots are adapted to this, and they get their nutrients from bugs instead.

Regular potting soil is packed with fertilizers and organic matter that will burn the roots and kill the plant. Never use it. Never add fertilizer either, even if the plant looks pale or weak. Fertilizing a flytrap is basically poisoning it.

The standard soil mix is 50% sphagnum peat moss and 50% perlite or silica sand. I use peat and perlite because it’s easier to find. You want long-fiber sphagnum peat if you can get it, not the cheap compressed stuff. I bought a big bag of peat moss from a garden center and a bag of perlite, and I’ve had enough to repot several times.

Make sure the perlite doesn’t have added fertilizers. Some brands do. Read the bag. Silica sand works too, but don’t use play sand or beach sand because they contain too many minerals and salts. You want horticultural sand if you go that route.

I mix the peat and perlite together, dampen it with distilled water, and that’s it. The mixture should be loose and airy but hold moisture well. When I repot, I use a plastic pot with drainage holes. Terracotta pots can leach minerals into the soil over time, so I avoid those. The pot sits in a tray of distilled water like I mentioned earlier.

You can also buy pre-made carnivorous plant soil mixes online, which is what I did the first time I repotted. It’s more expensive, but it takes the guesswork out. Now I just make my own because it’s cheaper and I have the ingredients already (California Carnivores).

Repotting should happen every one to two years. The peat breaks down over time and compacts, which reduces aeration. I usually repot in late winter right before the plant comes out of dormancy. The roots are pretty delicate, so I’m gentle when I tease out the old soil.

Since switching to the proper soil mix and distilled water, my flytrap has been doing great. It’s putting out bigger traps, the colors are more vibrant (there, I used the word once), and it actually looks like the pictures you see online. It’s not a difficult plant once you stop treating it like a regular houseplant.

References

Botanical Society of America. “Carnivorous Plants: What, How, and Why?” www.botany.org

California Carnivores. “Carnivorous Plant Care Instructions.” www.californiacarnivores.com

International Carnivorous Plant Society. “Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) Care Sheet.” www.carnivorousplants.org

Missouri Botanical Garden. “Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap).” www.missouribotanicalgarden.org

North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox. “Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap).” plants.ces.ncsu.edu