Try These 4 Indoor Carnivorous Plants: Creepy Carnivores To Add To Your Plant Collection

Few plants are as fun, mysterious and educational as indoor carnivorous plants. There are many carnivorous houseplants from which to choose, the Venus flytrap being one of the more popular and available. These plants may seem a bit macabre for children, but in actuality kids love to watch them take in their food and are active participants in their care.

Raising carnivorous indoor plants is an excellent opportunity to teach about the natural world and the food chain. And for anyone wanting to manage houseplant pests before they get out of hand, growing a carnivorous plant could prove a novel way to control your bug numbers! Here are four carnivorous houseplants you can easily grow at home.

Try These Creepy Carnivorous Houseplants

Indoor carnivorous plants may seem like odd choices in a peaceful household, but they can be beneficial. They can add a touch of sci-fi plant fascination and ghoulish glee to your growing adventures – making fascinating science experiments for younger growers, and helpful bug controls for the rest of us. Because they garner some or all of their nutrients from ingesting insects, they are helpful with fruit fly or fungus gnat infestations. Here are four of the creepiest indoor carnivorous plants you can grow at home.

1. Venus Flytraps

These classic carnivorous plants for home growing are native to the Carolinas on the coastal range. These plants need bright light, plus filtered, distilled, or rain water, and a natural food source. For satisfactory Venus flytrap care, provide at least six hours per day of sunlight or use a plant light if your home is dim. The planting medium should be half sphagnum or peat moss mixed with horticultural sand.

Keep a dish under the container and filled with water. If your home is dry, keep the plant in a terrarium. Venus flytrap carnivorous plants for home growing will require a live food source. Purchase live mealworms, blood worms, or crickets to bait the traps, or send the kids out to gather flies, spiders, or even slugs.

2. American Pitcher Plants

American pitcher plants thrive best outdoors, but they can be grown in the home. The trick when growing pitcher plants is to give them enough light. In the summer they need 16-18 hours which will need to be helped along with artificial light. In the winter they require at least eight and preferably 10 hours.

The soil must be kept quite moist. Some growers immerse the container in water or keep a dish filled with water under the drainage holes. Only use reverse osmosis or rainwater. The ideal soil is one part sphagnum moss to one part sand. You can feed these indoor carnivorous plants with dried crickets.

3. Sundews

Sundews are amongst the best carnivorous plants for indoors growing if they are kept in a terrarium. If you have house flies or gnats, these plants will happily feed themselves. When growing sundew plants, you’ll find a mixture of sphagnum moss and perlite is an excellent medium. This should be kept moist. Sundews need bright, consistent light which may be provided by a strong plant light.

4. Butterworts

Butterworts form a low growing rosette of leaves. This is crowned by a tall stem sporting an orchid-like flower. High humidity and bright light are musts for these little plants. Place the plants in an eastern or western window. A half and half mix of peat moss and sand or perlite provides the best medium, or you can use an orchid mix.

When growing butterworts, avoid using tap water which has too many salts, but do keep the medium well moistened. Avoid getting moisture on the leaves. Keeping a dish filled with water under the container will provide bottom-up moisture through osmosis. These indoor carnivorous plants feed on tiny soil organisms, so if you have other plants they can feed themselves. Butterworts are also commonly called pings.

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