I have two pots of pitcher plants that co-exist with citrus and other (semi)tropicals during the winter hiatus. I like to feed occasionally when I find worthy bugs. They tend to get flies pretty often and occasionally other flying insects. . They don't get much during winter and while aphids and mites will attack all the other plants, they avoid the pitchers. Funny thing is that they live in boggy soil, but that peat mix doesn't product gnats.....

Fruity, do you think they would eat fungus gnats?

Thanks Hibiscus! I'll look that one up!

I just ordered one from Logees along with a Buddha's hand ;-). I will go to my local nursery to find a Venus flytrap just for fun. My kids will enjoy it.

I got mine 4 years ago and it died a month later.

Ugh Steve...I hope mine does not meet the same fate. I need to look up what type of soil it likes.

Hey Laura! A nice bright spot will do in pure sphagnum or peat moss...Use fresh water, like distilled or rain. Any water without the chemicals or salts in them..No fertilizer and make sure to give it a good resting period....That means very cool temps and don't be scared if it looks dead...It will come back as soon as days warm up and days get longer..They love to grow outside! I had many in the past but let them freeze by accident outside...((

Make sure to keep the pot resting in a saucer with constant fresh water..

They won't get rid of a gnat problem, but they would certainly be well fed!

Thanks Mike! I just saw your post. I'll get everything ready for them. My kids think it's cool to have a carnivorous plant ;-)

Be carefuyl with carnivorous plants. Their are some that are big enough that they can and do eat domestic sheep (50 pounds)

Steve you must be thinking of this plant from little shop of horrors :)

I'm with hibiscus909 on this one. The sundew are one of my favorites for insect control. When I was keeping quail I had lots of them to keep the flys down. They were very effective and are very pretty too. Another great plant is turmeric. It doesn't eat insects but is sure repells them like crazy. Neither of these will compleatly solve your bug problems but they will help keep them under control while you deal with them. Hope this helps :)

That is a very cool idea that my kids would also love! They are quite the little gardeners themselves!

It didn't work for me. I had a venus next to my sprouts last year. The flies start to come in when I start hardening the plants off. There were either too many or the venus wasn't up to it! It lived for a long time indoors but I put it outdoors and had to be away for a period and it dried up and died. Oddly enough the best thing for the venus was to have its pot in a bit of water inside a terrarium environment(i just sat the pot inside an old goldfish tank). I think I would need multiple plants to eat all the flies!