VFT sold at the stores are usually in shock, stressed, and weakened by being jostled a lot during transportation. So usually the traps are closed or shoppers tease the traps close and for the traps to reopen, the plant expand energy. Add to that most of the time the plants are placed in a part of the store where they donÂt receive enough light.

So basically the VFTs are very weak and if something edible does fall in their traps, they donÂt have enough energy to digest the prey. It takes energy for the plant to produce enzymes to digest the insect so basically the insect rots which kills the trap.

I suggest to leave the plant alone for a couple of weeks to recover, you donÂt want to exhaust your plant and kill it. It may even stop producing new traps and when it starts to do so, you will notice the new traps will be quite smaller then the ones you see now. Just be patient, just give it time to recover and about a month, it will slowly start developing large traps.

Traps die and get replaced. Do as suggested above. Do you have the plant outside?

Also, like hunterkiller03 indicated, it is sunlight, not insects, that Venus Flytraps "eat." Insects are just fertilizer for the plant. Plants can live without fetilizer, in the case of Flytraps, without insects, for months or even years. They can never survive without adequate sunlight.

Centipedes are sometimes natural prey for Flytraps, however, many centipedes produce toxins that are distasteful or even deadly to various animals. I would suggest not to feed the plant centipedes, or anything at all for that matter. It is perfectly capable of capturing prey if it is grown in an open pot outside and even inside, mine caught 5 flies in one day without difficulty. (I simply can't get mine outside where it really belongs right now, so I will just have to hope it survives being inside till then).

If you bought your plant with a humidity dome and in dim light, you will need to adapt it to low humidity and bright sun slowly. Start by placing it in a good sunny morning window for a couple of weeks while you slowly remove the dome by lifting (about a 1/4 or 1/2 inch at a time) or punching several 1/4 inch holes in it every 3 days till it no longer holds humidity after two weeks, then take it off.

Next, place it in an all day sun window for a week. After that place it in a sunny spot outside if your region does not experience temperatures over 100 degrees. If the outside temprature is too high, you can keep it indoors, but you will need supplemental florescent light from compact 100 watt equivalent (the light bulb replacements) or 40 watt shop light fixtures (the long tubes) about 4 inches from the plant. Venus Flytraps really are garden plants that belong outside if they are to really thrive. Indoors in stagnant air with no source of full sun (even window light is cut in intensity) they tend to do more poorly and grow slowly, even dying from fungal infections quite readily.

Good luck with your Flytrap.