What Attracts Insects To Venus Flytraps?

The Venus flytrap, a unique carnivorous plant, secretes nectar on its open traps to attract insects searching for food. This volatile blend is emitted to attract insects, who then visit the deadly capture organ of the Venus flytrap. The Venus flytrap, like many other carnivorous plants, rely on insects for pollination, a process called entomophily. Insects are attracted by a plant’s color, patterns, odor, or nectar, which collects pollen from the flower’s anther and distributes it to the plant.

Carnivorous plants, such as the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), rely on meals of insects to survive in nutrient-poor soil. They sense the arrival of juicy insects, lured by the plant’s fruity scent. To be considered carnivorous, a plant must attract, capture, kill, and digest insects or other animal life. One carnivorous plant in particular has captured the public’s imagination: the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula).

Flypaper traps can be active or passive and rely on sticky mucilage, either directly on the leaf surface (butterworts) or on gland-tipped hairs (sundews), to capture prey. Snap traps, such as those of the Venus flytrap, are one of a kind. Nectar in their “traps”—actually modified leaves—attracts insects. When an unsuspecting insect brushes against tiny trigger hairs on a leaf-trap, the trap snaps shut in less than a second. The plant begins to secrete digestive enzymes inside the trap, which permeate the insect’s carapace and liquefie its insides, releasing VFTs secreting a sugary nectar on the surface of their traps, that attracts the insects.

Venus flytraps attract their prey using the reddish lining of their leaves, the sweet scent and UV-reflective patterns on the leaf surface, and the inner walls of the leaves covered in nectar. There are three trichomes (hair-like spikes) that attract insects and spiders to their deadly leaves.