Nature and Gardening

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All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.

See also our Environment community, which is focused on weather, climate, climate change, and stuff like that.

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Would a venus fly trap help deal with house gnats? (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've got several small houseplants in my home office, and I really like having them around. I'm still pretty new to taking care of them altogether, though, and we've gotten dozens of tiny house gnats now. I've put up sticky traps and tried to use some pest control in the potted soil. But would a small venus fly trap be able to help here?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Pro tip, you need to use reverse osmosis purified water. They are very sensitive to chemicals and tap water will kill them quickly. If they are not a tropical breed, you will need to toss them and the seed in the fridge over winter to keep them alive and allow them to flower the next year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh yeah, very good points. Although I'm lazy with my purple pitcher plant. It gets tap water from the hose because I never have enough quality RO water to keep them from drying out and they seem to be doing fine in my climate.

But totally I'm pretty sure my sundews died from not using adequate RO or distilled water.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I had a huge fly trap I been growing for years. Watered it with tap water once or twice since I was out and lazy. It never recovered.