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These are from seeds. I generally mix sand and peat and have LFS on top.

Have you grown Carnivorous Plants before? Are you aware of the Water requirements (Distilled, no plant food) for them? :)

There's a really great FAQ here, it has a lot of answers to questions most people don't even realize they had:
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

I haven't tried growing VFTs from seed yet, I hear they grow very slowly the first year then take off running. They're awful cute as seedlings, though. :)

Surprised you find ladybugs are pasts since ladybugs are carnivorous & eat aphids & gnats.

Anyways VFT grown from seedlings will only eat gnat or bug size gnats for a couple of years. On the third year they will be big enough to catch fruit flies but not ladybugs or houseflies.

It will take up to 4 years for your plant to develop a decent size (1/2 an inch) trap able to capture a small fly.

And one more thing, unless you buy a sundew or butterwort, carnivorous plants don't make good past control. They will capture enough to meet their needs.

Good luck!

I have to wonder how well a Sundew would work as a natural version of flypaper. My Cape Sundews are 2 years old (at least) now, and still would probably choke on a housefly. :D

Maybe a Filiformis? It'd hibernate in winter but, so would the bugs, so that works out...

My capse sundews & adeleas can capture houseflies. Its more impressive on the cape sundews when they wrap their leaves all around the fly like a taco.

Wonder if they like hot sauce on them? X^D

o.k. those two last sundew topics were random ;)

anyways, you should put the seeds in a plastic bag and put them in the fridge for 3 weeks. After that plant them in Peat and LFS. keep the soil moist, and water ONLY with rainwater/Ro or disstled.
Keep the babies in bright light-full sun.

Hope this covers it!
~tropichris~

Seed should be planted and kept moist during stratification. Just putting them in the fridge in a plastic bag won't work.
Sow them on 50/50 sphagnum/perlite or sphagnum/silica sand then spray distilled/RO or rain water, put in a ziplok bag and store in the fridge for 4 weeks. Then keep them in a bright location, full sun or bright grow lights. They will be tiny for the first six months after germination, so small that it will take a magnifying glass to see them.

Good luck.