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Do you know what a carnivorous plant is? Basically, it is a plant that is able to trap and digest living creatures as a way of nourishing themselves. Sounds disgusting doesn’t it?

Well if you like gross things, then you’ll love the Venus Fly Trap. Here we’ll give you a description of this fascinating plant, and give you some basic instructions to care for one, should you decide to own one.

A normal Venus Fly Trap will grow to about 5 inches. The trap part looks like a mouth with two pads inside and long spines that hang down which look like eyelashes. On each pad are 3 little hairs that act as triggers. When an insect crawls into the trap and touches the hairs, the trap closes over it. The more the insect struggles and moves, the tighter the trap shuts. When the trap is fully closed, the enzymes begin to digest the insect and absorb the nutrients into its pads. In about a week, the trap will re-open and the skeleton of the insect is revealed. At this point, the wind will blow away the skeleton, and the plant is ready for another meal.

If you decide to buy one, here are a few tips to remember. Venus Fly Traps love light, so give them lots of sun. If the traps are red in the middle then they are very healthy. They like to grow in live or unshredded sphagnum moss, or acidic soil but make sure to never give them fertilizer since they should only get their nutrients from insects. Place your plant in a tray with water (rain water is the best). You don’t need to water it from the top, it will get enough water absorbing it from the bottom. Don’t feed your plant dead stuff like chicken or steak, because the hairs inside need to be triggered by a struggle to complete the digestion process. They like ants and flies. Your plant should be able to catch food on its own, but if not, try grabbing an ant to feed it. Finally, try not to trigger the trap to close with a pencil or other object, because it uses the plants energy and makes it weaker. You can try it once or twice though just to see how cool it is.

Venus Fly Traps can be a lot of fun with the proper care. They can even take the place of a pet if you can’t have pets in your house. If you buy one, make sure to ask about how to care for it. Give it a shot, you could have a friend for life!