Main content

Hair trigger

Some plants have turned the tables on the plant eaters, enticing unsuspecting insects into a sugar-laden trap. Attracted by sweet sticky nectar around the tip and the plant's colour, flies land on the open mouth of a Venus fly trap. To spring the trap, two fine trigger hairs must be touched within 20 seconds of one other. When triggered the trap snaps shut so fast that the fly is imprisoned. The Venus fly trap then slowly digests its victim.

Release date:

Duration:

2 minutes

This clip is from

Featured in...

More clips from Challenges of Life

More clips from Life