Venus Flytrap Eats Wasps

Occurred on September 2020 / Germany

Info from Licensor: "During the summer months of the last few years I have been observing, photographing and filming social wasps in my garden in Dohr (located in the Eifel region) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. As a nature photographer and filmmaker, these insects are very productive for me. I observed and arranged numerous hours until the animals got used to me (and I got used to them) and then I managed to take extraordinary pictures.

There is a flower bed in my garden with carnivorous plants. I noticed several times that the Venus flytraps had also caught wasps. Venus flytraps are extraordinary plants whose trap-leaves (which are strongly red when exposed to sunlight) with the red color and the liquid excreted by nectarines attract prey. There are feeler bristles on the inside of the leaf. If one or more potential prey is touched twice within 20 seconds, the leaf collapses suddenly with a release speed of up to 100 milliseconds. With a speed of 6-20 cm / second, this is one of the fastest movements in the plant kingdom. The prey is caught and digested, leaving behind the indigestible chitin shell after a few days.

I really wanted to film this and I experimented for a long time until I got these extraordinary shots. I actually wanted to take slow-motion pictures, but that was the wrong way to go. Because it is precisely the quick closing of the catching leaves of the Venus flytrap that is so impressive. Many people who are often bothered by wasps or, if they are allergic, also feel threatened, feel satisfaction and strong sympathy for the Venus flytrap when they watch these scenes.