are you watering your plant with distilled or purfieid water? i hope it's not tap water. these plants prefer the cleanest most purest type of water they can get since they live in habitats with acidic soils without any salts.

Flytraps' traps can turn brown over time. LIke any plant, flytraps' leaves turn brown, blacken and die over time.

The thing about flytraps bought at hardware stores is that their seasons can be confused so many times while they are being shipped to their final destinations; to the consumer.

What type of water have you been watering it with?
Purfied or tap water?

Is your plant growing outside all of the time?
In Full sun? or in the shade? flytraps are sun-loving plants, 4-6 hours direct sunlight daily during the growing season is enough. a plant growned in the shade ends up a sickly plant, with longish dark greenish leaves and small traps. a plant growned in full sun during the growing seasons looks yellowish/green with big reddish traps.

Anyway, just let us know how you ben growing your plant exactly. maybe the bug was too big for its trap. this happens most of the times. flytrap's prey must be 1 1/3 smaller than the trap in order to be fully consumed by the trap.

if your temperatures do get pretty cold outside, it may be going dormant.

Some of my plants are beginning to show signs of slow growth, since fall raises, the days aren't shorter as last years.. i grow my plants outside all year round. in a few days i am pretty sure they will become dormant.

just reply how you been growing your plant.

It's hard to tell from a written description. Hard to tell even if we had the plant in front of us. Either could be happening right now. We'll have to take a wait and see approach, in addition to the advice above. This is the time of year when the plant slows down. It does resopond to the stimuli - reduced photoperiod and lower temps. But it could be unhappy as well.

My plant is growing outside in full sun for most of the day. I sadly have been watering it with tap water.. since reading your post I have switched to purified water and I hope it isn't too late. Do the traps normally not respond at all during dormancy?

Things either stop or slow down a whole lot, depending upon whether they are in a deeps sleep or not. A couple years ago I took my VFT out of the fridge in late February and placed it on a coldish window sill. I attempted to trigger a trap and to my surprise, it responded. I'd say it woke up in a hurry! As to the watering query, it depends upon the health of the individual plants. You'll just have to wait it out.