Flipping spammers :(

Ok, even a blog about venus flytraps of all things seems to attract comment spam, so I've turned on Google's new CAPTCHA image verification checking thingy so that people have to type in the text of an image to be able to post comments.

Venus flytrap trail

I just came across this travel article about a 'venus flytrap trail' you can do in the Wilmington-Cape Fear area of the North Carolina coast. I've not been to America before, but if I go, I think I'll try and visit there if I can get the chance!

News: Bush Attacked By Giant Venus Flytrap!

Ok this is just fantastic :) it's a (satirical, duh!) news report. Go have a read.

Here's the news report 'photo' as a teaser:

Invasion of the body snatchers

For some reason this drawing that someone sent me reminds me of the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

For those who haven't seen the film (why not?), it's quite timeless. I remember seeing it on Channel 4 when I was young, and it was possibly what got me loving carnivorous plants! I think it was the first film I saw where the 'bad guys' won at the end. I remember sitting almost through the entire credits due to the eerieness of the way they did it.. one of the best uses of silence I've seen in a film. (Ok it's not technically part of the film, but it was incredibly gripping nonetheless and really made a dramatic ending).

Ooh wow honey, look at that beautiful carnivorous plant!

As I posted on another blog, venus flytraps are not just really cool to have around the house, they can also look quite pretty (definitely a plus for the lady of the house!). It's for some reason not very well known that venus flytraps are flowering plants (the name sundew has nothing to do with melons, that's honeydew!), and make beautiful small delicate flowers.

I've dug up some nice pictures from the web. The first one shows the bud of a venus flytrap


This second picture (sorry it's a bit grainy) shows some fully formed flytrap flowers



Ooh, Blogger now lets me upload images too :)

[edit: Ok one of the pictures can't be found any more, so I've put a different one up]

It's just NOT the same!

One of my friends showed me this mechanical venus flytrap... now I'm sorry, but it just doesn't cut the mustard. Venus flytraps are just... cool! But this is no more than a toy.

Here's a picture of the Flycatcher Mark II



Seriously, I'm sure the amusement of having it burp after each fly will wear off fairly shortly... do you really want to have burps going off at random when you're alone in the house... wouldn't it make you jump?!

Not as fun as a real venus fly trap

I'm sorry, but this is nowhere near as fun as a real venus fly trap. I do like the flies that buzz around that page though... perhaps it could be written to have a cartoon flytrap eat them :)