Trader Joe’s Is Selling Venus Fly Traps —So, Snap One Up

Thanks to Trader Joe’s, you can open up your very own little shop of horrors. The much-loved grocery chain is currently selling baby Venus flytraps and you can grab one for just $5. 

Just make sure to keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle when you pick one up. You wouldn’t want to lose a limb. (Just kidding, of course.)

This isn’t the first time Traders Joe’s stores across the country have sold Venus flytraps. In fact, some Instagram posts showing off these new additions to shoppers’ plant families date back to fall of 2020. But after disappearing for a minute, TJ’s fans spotted them once more in stores in early June. 

Now it appears that Venus flytraps are popping up at Trader Joe’s locations left and right, from North Hollywood, California to Garland, Texas and more locations nationwide.

Venus flytraps are a carnivorous species that attract small bugs into their “jaws” using a tasty nectar. Then, when the fly lands inside the trap, the jaws close and the dissolving begins. After a few weeks, the jaws will open back up to start the process all over again. 

Venus flytraps fare best in carnivorous plant soil and placed in an area where they can receive direct sunlight (they’re perfect windowsill plants). And they like rainwater or distilled water best, according to CarnivorousPlants.co.uk. Venus flytraps grow best in slightly damp soil, but not soil that’s completely waterlogged, so it’s best to keep them in pots placed in a dish with about a centimeter of water at the bottom. And yes, you can directly feed your Venus flytraps live bugs, or leave them to attract any rogue insect on their own and watch the cool (albeit it, a little gruesome) magic happen.