FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I read online that spring tails or pill bugs were good choices for a terrarium.
Im going to put together one in the next month or two and wanted to include a low maintenance insect that was both harmless to a nepenthes but also could be attracted and eaten by the traps


anyone have any suggestions?

if pill bugs do in fact get attracted to pitcher plant nectar then that solves my problem but I don't know if they are or not

I have no idea if pill bugs will be attracted to the neps. Seems that pill bugs (rolly pollies in my neck of the woods) are ground scavengers that dine mostly on decaying vegetative matter so they might not find their way to your neps. Springtails will be so small I'm not even sure they will trip a small flytrap...maybe a very young seedling, but a grown flytrap probably wouldn't pay them any attention. Sundews would probably make use of them. Springtails would be the lowest maintenance insect and they'll help keep debris cleaned up.

I also don't think isopods would make a particularly good feeder either. I'd be wary of some of the larger species eating the plants themselves in the absence of leaf litter or other food for them (P. scaber for example seems to be the most cited for this), while dwarf species would be safer but probably wouldn't contribute much if any as food as they tend to spend most of their time underground. Springtails would probably be helpful though to keep any mold down and provide a bit of food. I prefer Pink springtails as they seem to be larger and more active than the standard Whites in my expereince but YMMV