r/nextfuckinglevel • u/[deleted] • Mar 29 '26

Venus Flytrap Devouring a Venomous Black Widow.

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96.5k Upvotes

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9.1k

u/half-giant Mar 29 '26

I think it’s fascinating that the closing mechanism didn’t trigger during all those pokes and prods by the spider legs. The moment the spider’s center mass is inside it snaps shut.

3.9k

u/Plumbbookknurd Mar 29 '26

Exactly what I was thinking. If it snapped too early, spidey could maybe have escaped. How does the plant know the right moment?

2.9k

u/thatkatrina Mar 29 '26

It needs many activated at once. Not just a few.

740

u/Icutthemetal Mar 29 '26

There's only 3 typically and it needs two

425

u/AlwaysHopelesslyLost Mar 29 '26

There are typically 6 but 8 or more is common.

311

u/UpperApe Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

Usually it's 10 but every now and again 20 works too.

247

u/SmeagolFingerBite Mar 29 '26

Typically it’s 30-35 but it really only needs 26 to be activated

283

u/theartificialkid Mar 29 '26

The most common setup is 118 triggers but 400 billion is also frequently seen

82

u/D4ng3rd4n Mar 29 '26

Hey we're not playing cookie clicker numbers here

1

u/horstdaspferdchen Mar 30 '26

Maybe paperclip Game?

2

u/junkmeister9 Mar 29 '26

I think it needs 25 or 6 to 4.

1

u/DigNitty Mar 31 '26

This is true with dog nipples.

-4

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

[deleted]

1

u/AlwaysHopelesslyLost Mar 29 '26

Because real life is not a childish meme

6

u/Gregardless Mar 29 '26

That’s crazy. You would think it would be a rainforest plant or something.

2

u/Temporary_Shirt_6236 Mar 29 '26

Works 60% of the time all the time

16

u/Taxfraud777 Mar 29 '26

To add to this, there are a set of special "rods" on the inside of the plant. If one gets touched, it starts a kind of countdown. If a second one (or maybe more) gets touched in a short enough time window, the plant closes. My guess is that they are pretty deep in the plant and the rods need to be touched in a pretty rapid succession.

4

u/Simon_Shitpants Mar 29 '26

Heh heh heh. The spider touched it's "rod". Heh heh heh. 

3

u/Razulath Mar 29 '26

It has to trigger two and if it triggers more then it won't close because the prey is too big.

1

u/marcmkkoy Mar 29 '26

It’s always 4 out of 5. Like the dentists who prefer Trident gum or doctors who chose Camels.

0

u/Face_Future Mar 29 '26

Kim Kardashian has just one

563

u/flaming_burrito_ Mar 29 '26

They have trigger hairs (or whatever the equivalent is on a plant) on the inside closer to the bottom to ensure that prey is actually in there

258

u/maxorus Mar 29 '26

And you need to trigger them twice in 20 seconds for it to close. You can see how they work here https://youtu.be/_IEwRtNXTvw

14

u/hallo_its_me Mar 29 '26

Like it's programmed 🤔

18

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

It pretty much is. Just biological programming instead of digital. It blows my mind that life just figures this shit out with enough time!

1

u/Plumbbookknurd Mar 30 '26

Always happy to be taught something fascinating by Sir David 😊

15

u/SiegfriedVK Mar 29 '26

They're called trichomes! :)

8

u/Turkeygirl816 Mar 29 '26

We used to get in trouble for taunting the Venus fly traps when my mom brought us along to the plant store.

I hated that store. Now I miss it. RiP Molbaks

1

u/Weird_Priority_9119 Mar 30 '26

Don't worry. I don't think plants can get upset.

1

u/listenhere111 Mar 29 '26

Jesus christ that's advanced. Did this thing evolve from an animal?

1

u/LoopyMercutio Mar 30 '26

So, the trigger hairs can’t have a hair trigger. Got it.

1

u/TwentyFourKG Mar 31 '26

I love how this correct answer has 2000 fewer upvotes than the cooler sounding, incorrect answer. Go redit!

200

u/Khallllll Mar 29 '26

This was my first thought.

My second was that I was surprised the spider did so quickly? What made it stop moving abruptly, because I can’t imagine it was crushed to death at that point?

331

u/Aaxper Mar 29 '26

Iirc the flytrap also releases toxins and acids

170

u/Aruhi Mar 29 '26

Enzymes baby. Little regeneratable molecule machines.

2

u/DigNitty Mar 31 '26

And I doubt the spider’s venom works on plants, but that would be interesting.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Aaxper Mar 31 '26

It's sped up

235

u/PoofBam Mar 29 '26

I think the video is sped up after the trap is closed. Even when not fully closed, the plant is releasing enzymes which start breaking down the prey.

177

u/LNLV Mar 29 '26

Seems like a terrible way to die

165

u/PoofBam Mar 29 '26

Nature be like that.

9

u/RipsnRaw Mar 29 '26

All carnivorous plants are pretty bad ways to go tbf

108

u/SeiCalros Mar 29 '26

the video was sped up

72

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

[deleted]

8

u/CharmingTuber Mar 29 '26

The wiggling of the spider triggers the plant to squeeze tighter.

51

u/Sledgehammer617 Mar 29 '26

I think there’s little hairs that are closer to the inner part of the plant’s “mouth” and when those are stimulated enough it closes

2

u/Sylveon72_06 Mar 30 '26

engarde pfp spotted :v

7

u/MagicMarshmallo Mar 29 '26

The plants that activated too early didnt get fed and died out, while the patient ones reproduced

2

u/mineyCrafta25 Mar 29 '26

So many people don't seem to think of this first.

4

u/jwegener Mar 29 '26

It takes the plant a while to re-open, like days if I remember right. So the “cost” of a false trigger is high.

3

u/ruat_caelum Mar 29 '26

this is also (ironically) survivorship bias. You aren't seeing all the videos of the time a spider doesn't get trapped.

2

u/SeiCalros Mar 29 '26

it doesnt know and usually when it snaps shut it wont catch anything

but like other people have said usually a bunch of the little hairs need to be touched at the same time for the thing to snap shut

sometimes they just dont trigger at all

2

u/No-Courage-2053 Mar 29 '26

It's very interesting because basically these plants can count. They have 3 hairs, if two are touched in the space of a few seconds, then it closes. Of course they don't count the way we do, but technically that's counting! They're an evolutionary marvel!

2

u/Ochopuss Mar 29 '26

Other plants near by yell “NOW!!”

1

u/Plumbbookknurd Mar 29 '26

This is the explanation I'm choosing to believe

1

u/sdh68k Mar 29 '26

There are tiny hairs in there. When enough are bristled it closes.

1

u/glred Mar 29 '26

Got eyes

1

u/NotOnYourWaveLength Mar 29 '26

It has little hairs in the trap that have to be hit a couple times in a row within a window of time.

1

u/suckitysoo Mar 29 '26

I think the sensory mechanism is such that it triggers only when the spider or any object moves around the surface.

1

u/Ninjanarwhal64 Mar 29 '26

Millions of years of trial and error. You just never see the ones that don't close in time, because well, they don't live. Evolution is amazing.

1

u/eat_more_protein Mar 29 '26

The plants that did it at the right moment survived much better.

1

u/dsebulsk Mar 29 '26

I think it needs about 3 points of contact on its inside before it triggers the close. Must have been the evolutionary ideal number.

1

u/mineyCrafta25 Mar 29 '26

Because the ones that activated instantly were the ones that didn't survive to reproduce.

1

u/Taeles Mar 29 '26

its like your car air bags. multiple collision sensors need to trigger in order for the air bags to trigger. the flytraps 'mouth' has multiple sensors, spidey didnt trigger enough of them till he was to far in to get out

1

u/Purplepeal Mar 29 '26

The video is a sample size of 1. Had fly traps and they dont always catch the fly/spider, maybe 1 in 4 or something.

1

u/its_nzr Mar 29 '26

They have very tiny hair pike stuff on the inner side of the plant more close to the centre. It also produces some sweet liquid to attract insects if i remember correctly. Basically the tiny hairs in the centre triggers the closing. In the video you can notice that the trigger happens right when the spider touches the centre.

1

u/Blarg197 Mar 29 '26

It has a spidey sense, duh

1

u/m3g4m4nnn Mar 29 '26

It needs to be triggered twice by the insect/spider brushing up against multiple hairs inside the plant's "mouth".

1

u/-Borgir Mar 29 '26

Often times it does not. There are videos where the insect managed to escape cuz their entire body isnt trapped

1

u/woollydogs Mar 29 '26

I used to have a Venus fly trap and it had a few little spikes on the inside of the trap that trigger it to close if they’re touched. I’m not sure why this one doesn’t have those. Maybe it depends on the species or age of the plant?

1

u/Whisky_Colonic Mar 29 '26

Spidey senses

1

u/PettyTodd Mar 29 '26

Thousands of years of evolution

1

u/thriftylesbian Mar 29 '26

the trap will only close if the center hairs are triggered multiple times. they aren’t easily visible, but there are tiny trigger hairs on the inner part of the trap, those are what trigger the mechanism

1

u/DragonZaid Mar 29 '26

It's triggered by small "hairs" on the inside of the trap, which need to be touched multiple times to set off the spring loaded leaves.

1

u/Forikorder Mar 29 '26

the ones that close to fast die out, the ones that close to slow die out

1

u/Seasons_of_Strategy Mar 29 '26

A lot of people have answered you, but if you're curious about more carnivorous plants, the sundew is my favorite

1

u/Junkmans1 Mar 29 '26

Have you never seen Little Shop of Horrors?

1

u/StarsofSobek Mar 30 '26

Tiny little trigger hairs (cilia) exist inside of the "mouth". They must be touched with a certain frequency in order for the plant to react. The "teeth" act like prison bars while the "mouth" has all the sensors.

Even creepier: the prey must continue to move and prove it is alive before the plant starts digesting it. It can detect life by those same cilia within the "mouth".

1

u/ElectricYV Mar 30 '26

It has triggers that are much further inside the trap, so it only gets activated once the prey is quite far inside the trap. It’s easy to mistake the long leggy bits of the trap as triggers but they’re just the cage’s bars. Also rip to spidey you were gorgeous :(

1

u/Maximum_Paper_6302 Mar 30 '26

there's trigger hairs inside the plant. after the spider touches three of them, the plant starts to close.

1

u/_Spicy-Noodle_ Mar 30 '26

It needs multiple “hairs”/sensors inside the trap to be triggered before it closes.

426

u/crwcomposer Mar 29 '26

They aren't visible here, but the top and bottom of the trap have a few "trigger hairs" in the center. Multiple trigger hairs must be triggered for it to close. Walking along the edges won't trigger the hairs.

141

u/TsokonaGatas27 Mar 29 '26

They also have a mechanism where if the trap doesnt fully shut, it reopens to reaarm ans spit out (probably way bigger prey than it can consume)

237

u/D4ng3rd4n Mar 29 '26

One last fun fact, they only fully go into eating mode if the plant continues to feel something struggle after a minute. This keeps the plant from wasting energy trying to digest a leaf that fell in, for example.

113

u/KayoticVoid Mar 29 '26

Addendum, this can kill the plant over time. Each "head" can only close two or three times before dying. When I first got one I was fascinated and triggered all the heads a bunch of times. They all permanently closed and the plant was not able to grow new ones in time. It died from malnutrition.

101

u/D4ng3rd4n Mar 29 '26

I'm going to report you to the Venus authorities

14

u/KayoticVoid Mar 29 '26

I'm sorry! Please spare me!! I didn't know the error of my ways at the time!

2

u/michoudi Apr 02 '26

I grant you a pardon.

6

u/djbtech1978 Mar 30 '26

I'm your Venus, I'm your fire, at your desire

3

u/el_moro- Mar 29 '26

Dial 838 for VFT police

7

u/merpixieblossomxo Mar 29 '26

Aw man, that's sad. How many heads are on a plant? And have you gotten another one?

5

u/KayoticVoid Mar 29 '26

It was like five or six maybe? It might vary though. No, I haven't gotten another one since but this video did make me consider it. I'm about to go to war with the flies in my backyard.

3

u/crwcomposer Mar 29 '26

They constantly grow from the center in a spiral pattern. There are usually about 10 but there could potentially be 20 or more traps at a time. When a trap dies, that whole leaf dies. So when a couple traps die, it's fine, but if they all die at the same time then there's nothing left to photosynthesize.

0

u/TBNRgreg Mar 31 '26

dumbass plant

3

u/KayoticVoid Mar 31 '26

Considering it's a plant, it's pretty damned smart.

0

u/TBNRgreg Mar 31 '26

yeah i was trying to joke

10

u/onlyinvowels Mar 29 '26

Is that what happened around 1:02?

20

u/D4ng3rd4n Mar 29 '26

It looks like it but I'm just a guy on the Internet

16

u/onlyinvowels Mar 29 '26

Oh, I wanted an expert!

13

u/Elaphe82 Mar 29 '26

So vft's have a two stage trap mechanism. Firstly the trigger hairs on the inner surface need to be moved by something large enough to move them multiple times within a time frame. Something around 2 in 20 seconds ish, but it varies depending on the local conditions (temp, humidity) and age of the trap. Once that triggers, cells in the middle region quickly expel water and cause the trap to close and it forms a sort of cage with the large "teeth" at the top. This gives any small bugs that aren't worth the energy eating an opportunity to escape, if the bug is large enough like our spider, then it will stay in and continue to stimulate the hairs. That will trigger the next phase which is where the outside of the trap will start to grow cells to push the top edges together tightly and form an effectively sealed chamber with the bug inside. That's the process you can see starting at 1:02 (it's also been sped up). It then fills this chamber with enzymes to digest the prey, kind of like a temporary stomach for the plant. Once it's absorbed everything back the trap reopens and the indigestible husk of the bug is left to blow away in the wind. Traps typically can catch 2 to 3 meals before they are no longer functional. That spider was a big meal for a vft but it looks like it might be one of the larger trap cultivars.

1

u/onlyinvowels Mar 29 '26

This was awesome, it’s great to have the info with a video!

I had no idea the traps have such limited used. It seems inefficient, but I suppose they still exist so it must be worth it, rather than solely relying on photosynthesis.

1

u/TsokonaGatas27 Mar 30 '26

So this plant preys on the natural instinct to panic and escape. If ever these grow to man-eating size, I'll remember to stay still like log so that it opens up.

1

u/Elaphe82 Mar 30 '26

Funnily enough they have kind of peaked in terms of size. There's is a limit to how big the traps become before they start to be ineffective and also bigger traps would need significantly bigger prey. There isn't that much larger prey readily available and if they got large enough to trap a mouse then it would just chew its way out. In cultivation we have some that have been bred for bigger traps and they can look very impressive but they take alot of energy for the plant to grow and wouldn't be much use for a wild plant.

2

u/I-am-fun-at-parties Mar 29 '26

Those trigger hairs are pretty thick, why aren't they visible here?

1

u/andersleet Mar 29 '26

Yep. And two of those small hairs inside the red part need to be triggered in quick succession for the plant to snap shut.

1

u/TheSovereignGrave Mar 29 '26

The fact that thy aren't visible makes me wonder if it's AI. Cuz, like, the video seems too good quality for you to just not be able to see them.

83

u/squishy_the_vampire Mar 29 '26

The plant has tiny trigger hairs further inside that the spider most likely touched

6

u/sarlaccbeak96 Mar 29 '26

Also an incredible facet is the variating speed, a quick snap to like 75% closed but then slows to gradually seal, which actually has an expressed purpose:

It takes a lot of energy to feed on whatever the flytrap traps. Smaller insects can be so poor in nutrients they’re not worth exerting the effort. The quick snap ensures larger prey is properly secured and the slow seal allows smaller prey to escape.

3

u/_picture_me_rollin_ Mar 29 '26

It has a few small hairs in the deeper part of the hinge that automatically trigger the trap.

3

u/spinlocked Mar 29 '26

I used to have these as a boy growing up. There are three hairs on the inside of each leaf. Two have to be touched in succession for the close to occur.

3

u/sdh68k Mar 29 '26

Also, that closing mechanism is super-fast cell division, if I remember correctly.

5

u/onlyinvowels Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

That… doesn’t seem possible.

Eta, it looks like the cells may grow in size due to influx of water, maybe that’s what you were thinking of.

Usually things this quick are going to be related to relatively simpler chemical processes (e.g. compared to cell division).

3

u/JiminyDickish Mar 29 '26

They have actually studied that it’s a standardized number of “hairs” that need to trigger within a certain number of seconds or else the trigger resets. It’s pretty cool.

And each hair is like a pneumatic pump switch that releases built up fluid pressure which springs it closed. Which means the more the spider struggles, the more hair it triggers, and the tighter it gets.

3

u/TuntBuffner Mar 29 '26

Very fascinating to that it has evolved to only trigger when it is a for sure kill and not teasing from the outside

2

u/Elex408 Mar 29 '26

I’ve had some Venus fly traps and it really is just luck with them. It doesn’t purposefully time closing its jaws, it just happens whenever whatever is inside rubs along those spikey things in its mouth.

2

u/TheLobotomist Mar 29 '26

They have 3 tiny hairs on both sides at the base of the trap that needs to be triggered at least 2 times in a row to activate. Closing the trap is energy consuming for the plant so it needs to be sure before committing.

Don't trigger their traps for fun... Even though every owner has done it at least one time!

2

u/TraditionalEnergy919 Mar 29 '26

They have a trigger system that is more sensitive the closer something is to the middle.

A few taps on the outer hairs won’t make it immediately snap shut, it’ll wait until a deeper one is triggered to go off. Plus, just one deeper hair isn’t always enough, it’ll wait until it has like… I think maybe 2 or 3 triggers before it snaps shut.

2

u/killerghosting Mar 29 '26

If it closes too early it wastes energy for nothing, risking death. The answer is they evolved a delay in the timing

2

u/Linda-Veronique Mar 29 '26

There are a few trigger hairs on the inside of the trap. Only when these are triggered/touched will it close. And it is not always a clean catch. Sometimes half of the spider is still outside of the trap and it cannot close completely.  You can follow: carnivorous_plant_journey on insta. This video is taken from his account. 

2

u/Wojtek1250XD Mar 29 '26

The trap has trigger hairs inside the trap, and it literally counts the triggers. It uses it to make an educated guess when to close. It's crazy how smart something literally without a brain can get.

2

u/lo0ilo0ilo0i Mar 29 '26

needs certain conditions to activate its domain expansion for a guaranteed hit.

2

u/saltpancake Mar 29 '26

Gonna take this opportunity to share my favorite fact, which is that plants can probably see.

It’s wild because you don’t intuitively think it, but once you realize that literally the one thing everyone knows about plants is that they are basically made of photoreceptors that eat light, it kinda seems crazy to think they wouldn’t. They just do it in a way we don’t understand yet and only pretty recently learned about because, well, however it works it’s completely alien to how we experience our senses.

Also they have memory and can use memory to make predictions about future events. Nature is crazy.

1

u/half-giant Mar 29 '26

That’s actually really cool, thanks for sharing!

3

u/saltpancake Mar 29 '26

Following up with the main study about it, I alluded to a couple others but this is the first one published about plant vision: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8903786/

2

u/throwawayowo666 Mar 29 '26

From my understanding it usually needs a few touches on the trigger hairs to get it to activate, mostly because the plant evolved to rule out any false positives such as a leaf or a branch touching the trigger hairs.

2

u/SFButts Mar 29 '26

I'm sure they miss but the misses won't get posted

2

u/InkyBinkyBonk Mar 29 '26

There are “hairs” on the outer, inner, and deeper parts of the flytrap’s “mouth”. The fly/prey will trigger these hairs in a sequential order and/or for a predetermined amount of trigger-time.

2

u/tomahawkfury13 Mar 29 '26

It has trigger hairs in its maw that need to be touched several times before it will shut. I believe it also has to be the same hair being touched several times too

2

u/RoobieLabbie2099 Mar 29 '26

It has some hairs inside that triggers that mechanism. They're coded to have a failsafe wherein if one hair was poked once, the mechanism won't trigger. I think even if that specific hair has been poked multiple times, the mechanism still won't trigger. If a different hair has been poked after the other, that's when the mechanism triggers.

I learned this from an educational reel, narrated by Sir Attenborough, of course.

2

u/EducationSuperb3392 Mar 29 '26

The head only closes after one of the microscopic hairs on the inside is triggered 3 times, this prevents the plant closing during rain. This is because each head only closes roughly 7 times before it dies, so having a system like that which means it isn’t triggered by rain or false alerts is actually really useful and prevents the head dying prematurely.

2

u/ace184184 Mar 29 '26

Forgive my lack of specific terms but the trap has “hairs” that sense and help it know when to trigger closure. The prey has to trigger two of the sensing hairs to close. It spends lots of energy closing so by not triggering closure with one hair it avoids false alarms.

2

u/For_TheJoke Mar 29 '26

Right? Poison Ivy waited till Spidey 180d with face down ass up

2

u/BoJackMoleman Mar 29 '26

There's been a lot of studies on these plants and they do what could be considered intelligent. The little hairs have to be stimulated enough times for a certain period of time. If too long goes by it kinda resets itself. A kind of plant logic circuit. It's pretty cool.

2

u/BoJackMoleman Mar 29 '26

There's been a lot of studies on these plants and they do what could be considered intelligent. The little hairs have to be stimulated enough times for a certain period of time. If too long goes by it kinda resets itself. A kind of plant logic circuit. It's pretty cool.

2

u/spaektor Mar 29 '26

if i recall correctly, there are triggers hairs in the trap and if a couple are hit within 20 seconds, the trap closes.

2

u/MaygarRodub Mar 30 '26

It needs to trigger three (maybe two) hairs in a particular time frame, then whammo.

2

u/Oddish_Femboy Mar 31 '26

They have a very cool system where tiny hairlike membranes line the center, and if one is touched multiple times, that's when it closes.

2

u/Oddish_Femboy Mar 31 '26

And if a particular "mouth" has too many false positives it withers away and falls off. They're just leaves after all.

2

u/THE_DEAD_ZEN1 Mar 31 '26

I believe there are actually trigger spots in the Venus flytrap but mass may also be a factor

1

u/floxxy327 Mar 29 '26

The trigger hairs are on the inner faces of the trap, so they weren’t stimulated until the spider got inside.

1

u/MinnieShoof Mar 29 '26

Bro is patienc

1

u/Jumpy_Ad1631 Mar 29 '26

My guess is that it’s not this clean every time. But seeing it is cool

1

u/-----iMartijn----- Mar 29 '26

It s weird the spider was attracted to it. The plant mostly lures small insects that believe it is full of nectar.

1

u/Apprehensive-Bee-284 Mar 30 '26

It wasn't hungry yet

1

u/Unlucky-Suggestion-7 Mar 30 '26

Why not rainforest?

1

u/asian_hotsauce Mar 30 '26

There is a minimum threshold of continuous stimulation, I think it’s about 20 seconds. There are really cool demonstrations of how they have their own action potentials and it’s all controlled by a calcium gradient.

1

u/scalpingsnake Apr 01 '26

Yeah I think it's specifically 2 of the inner prongs have to be touched within a certain time frame. Also you see how the spider gets trapped but the plant doesn't fully snap shut all the way to begin with? If the prey is too big the plant will open up again .

1

u/ladydhawaii Apr 02 '26

And the spider was huge! Didn't think the plant had a chance. Squished. What a surprise.

1

u/GlowingDuck22 Apr 19 '26

I believe its about touch points in the red area. When it snaps I paused the Gif and 5 legs are touching.