In article om, a.c.
writes
I've recently acquired insect eating plants. (1 Dionea
muscipula--venus fly trap & 1 sarracena pururea---bog plant) There
seems to be quite a lot of google entries concerning their water
requirements, but what I'm looking for is more on the lines of just
what can they eat and how much of it?
I mean, what with the hot weather n all, we have to stuff the chicken
leftovers into the freezer until bin day to prevent us from having a
stinky dustbin. So, just how many such plants would I need to save
freezer space (& save electricity, thereby aiding the enviornment)
Like, how are they on chicken bones? Or the fat from a slice of ham?
Just wondering.

:-)
Cover your whole garden with them and you might begin to make an
impression - that is if you can stop them gorging themselves on flies
;-)

Assuming this isn't simply a wind-up, you may need to tackle your
problem at source. The obvious is to scale down your chicken cooking so
there are fewer left overs ;-) This probably isn't your scene, but if
you boil up the left overs for a while, you make a good stock which can
be frozen for later use in gravy, soup, casseroles etc and save you a
fortune in Oxo cubes, and the boiled scraps are much less smelly.
Otherwise, wrap each batch of leftovers in one or two supermarket
carrier bags and tie the top - stops the smells and raiding dogs.
Chop the ham fat into small pieces and let the birds have it.

Back to flies. The venus fly trap could best be described as slow to
catch. I have to swat the flies first to stun them. Place on trap and
wait for fly to wiggle, but sometimes it wiggles and has walked-out
before the trap closes in.

They have an elaborate trigger mechanism involving two or three hairs -
makes sure it closes for live flies and not bits of dead leaf etc that
have blown in.

But if it's closing slowly, it may simply be that you've been
overfeeding it. You don't need to feed it - in fact you shouldn't feed
it as a routine. It will catch all it needs by itself.

--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"