h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Venus Fly-Trap will indeed eat dead prey, as long as the small trigger hairs on the trap itself are touched three times in sucession. The multiple touches are used so that the plant can differentiate between Rain and Food (I wish it was as easy when selecting the Soup at our canteen). I did once keep a Venus Fly-Trap alive for over a year by feeding it pieces of fried egg every Sunday Morning. Mother drew the line at giving the plant its own chair at meal-times, however.

I once fed a Venus Fly Trap - one I'd had for quite a long time - a piece of supermarket ground beef. It killed it almost instantly (plant time).

Carnivourous plants are one thing; but what I need is something actually predatory; something I can let loose to protect my gardens at night. The closest thing I've found is an Agave with leaves tipped with razor-sharp bayonets. All they do is stand sentry duty though.

Don't stop this line of thought! You're almost there! Why not fill your garden up with these sharp little buggers. I wouldn't want to be the first cat that comes to your garden to take a leak.

Unfortunately, there is a maximum blood-loss threshold. This is the point where further increase in the number of deadly-spikey-thing is offset by the decrease in the amount of available gardener.

This is all very well, but you have forgotten the menace Venus Fly Traps pose to society. ALl though breeding them would be considered by many to be worthwhile and an alterbative to the traditional guard dog, you forget the casualties these plants create.
In fact, my sister was orphaned by a venus fly trap, and I've never forgiven her since.

Patch things up and take her to the orphans picnic.

Dear listener, are we suddenly to find ourselves surrounded by Goons? "Private Eccles! Take this man outside and shoot him!"

What the world needs, and desperately at that, is a carnivorous plant that has been crossed with one of those charming motion-sensitive plants that curl up their leaves at the slightest movement. Naturally, certain adjustments would have to be made so that instead of retreating pathetically into a protective huddle, the plant would stretch out its spike-tipped branches as far and as fast as possible, impaling the offending burglars, cats or children before drawing them in to its acid-filled corpse-disposal unit. The simple addition of a few genes from phosphorescent algae would result in an aggressive sentry that doubles as a nightlight.

You rotten John the Gardener swine you!
You have deaded me again, with your predatory plants!

Ever seen 'Day of the Triffids'?

Yes I did, and the book was better....

The best film is, of course, "Little Shop Of Horrors"... although it is not exactly life-like.
How would you feed a carnivorous plant when you've gone away on holiday? If you give it to your parents to look after, who would feed who?

The book was much better. I thought the film missed out on the sense of doom etc... Enough film critic type stuff

So the question remains, how would us animals protect ourselves from dangerous plants? And as burglar deterants, what use would they be if burglars could just use a match to kill them all??

To protect them from fire just add the genes of a water plant as used by that guy in Beverly Hills I think it was, to protect his house from the big forest fire they had there. All his neighbours were burnt out but these water plants with their high water content kept the flames at bay. Failing that get a Triffid they could move on their own.

As a little kid I fed my VFT a piece of salami, it never opened up again.

Beware! The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Carniverous Plants will be after you!
How dare you do such a thing? Have you no morals????

Is it possible for Venus Fly Traps to turn vegetarian? Would they chomp on passing lettuces and the like? Would this technically make them cannibals?

Not vegetarian, but possibly humanitarian.

I put some jam in one of the traps in my Venus Fly Trap, and it caught a wasp. It killed the plant though.

It seems, looking at the evidence in this conversation, that if a Venus Fly Trap eats anything, in almost immediately dies. One wonders how they evolved in the first place.

Send out a Squarlaxis, this plant when taught properly, will devour even little dogs (bigger dogs when is grows)
This plant carnivour can also water your plants with eccess nutrients which is stores
This technique can be used during a dry draught.

Has anyone tried feeding one of things a toffee or some Space Dust? It's almost worth buying one to try it. Maybe there's an underground group specializing in Venus Fly Trap fighting where you plant load of the really close together, film them over a very long period of time and sell speeded up videos on the black market. I used to have one as a kid too but became discouraged when I found a massive spider making its web over one - seems flies are a very competetive market.