Stuff You Should Know - Venus Flytraps: Plant or Monster?

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

After looking into the Venus Flytrap, we quickly moved it to the top of our favorite plant list. Part plant, part monster? What's not to love? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to

believe. You can find in Major League Baseball, International Banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and there's Jerry and the three of us are easy breezy beautiful cover girls and this is Stuff You Should Know. How you doing?

I'm great. Good. I'm doing good. I always wanted to be a cover girl. Well, you are now. I decree as such. Fantastic. I'm excited about this one, Chuck. I'm really excited because it's like a combination of one of our plant episodes with one of our animal episodes. Yeah, it is, isn't it? It's really hard to not look at a Venus flytrap in action on a video and not think it's an animal. Yeah, I guess so. I guess it's hard. Sure. It's just so like, all you can think of, or all I can think of is that thing is like thinking with a brain, let me close my mouth and eat this thing. Yeah. That's a bunch of animal. You know what I mean?

That's what it looks like for sure. Yeah. But the thing is, Chuck, is there's a whole thread of botany now. There's like a big dispute in the botanical world about just, yes, about just how much plants think and not necessarily in ways that we would recognize it as thinking, but still having intelligence, memory. And one of the things that seems to be kind of emerging as far as studying Venus flytraps goes is that plants, just like us, use what are called action potentials, which is electrical transmissions that cause cells to do different things when they're stimulated. And that is thinking, like that's how we think, that's how neurons fire. So the idea that plants use the same kind of general principle

to do things or to react to things or respond to things or to change the behavior, buddy, that's thinking in a lot of ways. What's a vegan to do? I know. It's definitely... It puts them in a tough spot. That's a conundrum. They're going to all end up breathe the Terrians. Right. Oxygen Terrians. Yeah. No, that's the thing. Did you know that? Breathe the Terrians? I feel like I've heard of that. It's exactly what it sounds like. So they don't eat anything? No, they just breathe. And drink water or is that off limits? I don't even know if they drink water, probably water.

Are they all dead? Eventually, I'm sure. Okay. But yeah, we'll have to do an episode on that because I don't know enough about it to speak on it intelligently, but it is pretty interesting because I know some people at least try it. Well, it sounds like a movement that would probably not gain much steam, you know. Right. Because they're just too tired to proselytize about it. Sounds like a short stuff. Okay. There you go. Gotcha. I think it's a great idea. But we're here to talk about the Venus Flytrap, not the WKRP and Cincinnati DJ. What a great character. He had a lot of facets.

Played by what was named Tim something, right? Tim Reed. Wow. Nice. I saw a lot of WKRP when I was growing up. I did too, man. I love that show. It's funny. I remember I'm already going on a tangent before I even get started, but I remember watching that show when I was little and seeing Johnny Fever wear the Grateful Dead t-shirts, which was my first exposure, and they had the skeleton and stuff, and I thought they were some kind of a metal thing. I did too. I actually had a couple of their posters, and I was like, this band must be the coolest band of all time. And I finally heard them, and I was like, this doesn't match at all. The best name ever, the best imagery,

and then it just didn't add up music wise. But we're talking about the Venus Flytrap, the plant, which, if you think, sure, I've heard of those things. That's like the one carnivorous plant. No, no, no. There are hundreds and hundreds of plants that actually eat other things by attracting things and capturing and killing them. But the Venus Flytrap gets all the press because it looks like it looks and it's so cool. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the other plants eat and digest insects, or even some rodents. There's a kind of pitcher plant that I saw. It's the size of a toilet. And if you're a mouse and you fall in, that's it for you, mouse. But they don't do anything. They just kind of sit there and hope that something falls in. The thing that makes

the Venus Flytrap so fascinating is it's one of only two plants in the world that actually closes, that actually traps, and it traps its prey. And you just don't see that. The other one's the European water wheel, and it looks like a fern with the very tips of each fern frond, kind of like Venus Flytrap-y, the very, very small version of it. The Venus Flytrap is just big enough to be like, wow, that's really neat. Right. Like they would never write a character named Audrey after those ferns and put them in Broadway musicals. No. And Audrey II, technically. Audrey II? Yeah. Audrey was Seymour's love interest, the girl that he liked. So he named the plant Audrey II. Can I confess something? Yeah. I know nothing about Little Shop of Forests. I mean, I haven't seen it in a really long time

either, but I went and looked up some stuff on it. Oh, okay. So you're confessing too. Yeah. I saw on a YouTube video this guy from the Carolinas talking about the Venus Flytrap, and he said a more appropriate name for them would probably be, did you see this guy? Yeah. The Carolina Spider Trap. Yeah. Because of two things, they are basically only found in about a 700 mile area as far as growing wild along the coast of North and South Carolina. And then he said they really only eat about 5% of their diet as spiders, or I'm sorry, as flies. He said they mostly eat spiders and ants. And you can also throw in crickets and slugs and some other catapultery things in there. Yeah. I mean, very frequently, whatever just happens to wander on

to the plant itself, but I mean, it'll take what it can get, but I guess winged insects who maybe get away faster or more easily. Yeah. I mean, I get the idea that the flies can get out of there easier. So it's just, I mean, they're fine to eat flies. It's harder. Yeah. I also, I saw, I don't know if it was in that same video or not, that there's only an estimated 150,000 of these plants in the wild in the entire 700 mile just tiny strip along the coast of North and South Carolina. And they live in bogs, like marshy bogs, sometimes salt marshes, sometimes peat bogs. But you know, like a wetland that's like always wet, that's where they grow. And they like the sun and they like it humid, but they can also weather the cold as we'll see because it can get pretty cold in the

winter in North Carolina. So there's really no way around explaining the origins of the name without it being a little, well, it's just a little dicey because it was named at a time where things were different back then. And they named it because the plant resembled a, perhaps a woman's anatomy. Help me out here. No, I'm really enjoying watching you tap dance. Well, I mean, and we've talked, we may have mentioned it in the folklore episode, the idea of the vagina dentata, which in many different cultures and nations around the world, there are these folkloric legends of these women who had teeth and their vagina act as a trap. Keep going, Chuck. And that is where this name comes from.

It's named after Venus, the pagan goddess of love because of that plant's resemblance and because of that folklore. Yes. Geez. Good job, man. I think you really presented that well. All right. I wouldn't name it that today. Can I say that? No, they definitely wouldn't. People are a lot less uptight when it comes to S-E-X, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, it'd be the Carolina spider trap. Yee-haw. That's right. I also saw that when it was imported to England for studies around the mid-18th century, that it was popularly called tippity witchets. That's what they call Venus fly traps in England. I thought it was fun too. And Charles Darwin said that it was one of the

most wonderful plants in the world, which I mean, that's a pretty good endorsement coming from him. Oh, I bet he loves the Venus fly trap. Yes, he really did. And I don't think because he had any kind of sexual proclivities toward it, like some of his other fellow botanists who actually named it that. No, I think because it's a wonder of natural selection and evolution. I would say that's why too. We know that's his kink. One of the other things, he's like, oh, natural selection, yes. What's up? So one of the other things about the Venus fly trap, it has another name too. It's a texanomic name, is Dionea musculpula. I think that's right. And that actually is named after Diana, a different goddess, the Roman goddess of the hunt. And musculpula apparently means

mousetrap. So the other name thing you could call it besides Venus fly trap is Dione mousetrap. It's not bad. It's got a lot of really great names. I mean, tippity witch it alone is worth, you know, celebrating. I think Diana mousetrap might be my new hotel check-in name. Oh, that's a good one. I like that. Yeah. But at any rate, they eat insects and not because they just love the taste of spiders or flies. They're regular plants too. They love photosynthesis and they do their thing during photosynthesis like all plants do and take that energy of the sun and convert it to sugar and oxygen and use that stuff as energy. But they also need other stuff just like all plants need. But they can't get it because of where they live in that

PD marshy bog. They need all these amino acids and vitamins that their land doesn't provide. And they get that from these insects. Yeah, because most other plants are able to get things like nitrogen from the soil and phosphorus and magnesium, soil for calcium and potassium. Like yes, they need ATP energy and they store it in the form of carbohydrates like all plants do. But there's other nutrients that they need to build cell walls to produce DNA to transport water throughout that kind of stuff. Like you definitely need a lot more than ATP. And since they can't get it from the soil, they have evolved to get it by eating other bugs or eating bugs. Even in some cases, like those giant pitcher plants like mice because animals are really

great mobile stores of stuff like calcium and sulfur and phosphorus and magnesium. That's right. And in that wet PD acidic soil, they must seek purchase elsewhere. And luckily, those little spiders are happy to just crawl in there. And maybe we should take a little break and we'll tell you all about how this trap happens right after this. I'm here to help this. I promise you seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. And so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids relationships life in general can get messy. You may be thinking,

this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye. Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikular. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you,

let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world can crash down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology. It changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Chuck, before we go any further, I just want to restate one of the coolest things I've ever heard, that the Venus flytrap and other carnivorous plants couldn't get nutrients from the soil they

grew in. So they learn to eat bugs to get those nutrients. It's astounding. And it also makes them so similar to the animal world. Because that's why animals eat other stuff, like other animals or even plants. Because we need to get our energy elsewhere. We don't get it from the soil. So it makes them in some weird way akin to us as well. Do you feel a kinship? A little bit. And you know, I'm a little attracted to it too, like some of those early botanists. Oh, not in a Darwinian way. No. Or both. You swing both ways? Sure. Okay. I don't judge. Who knew this podcast would go in this direction? I did. Right when I saw that first thing about it being dicey. Yes. About the name being, I knew exactly where it was going to go.

So they are not the only plant also that attracts things via their smells or these delicious syrupy saps. I mean, if you go out in your garden on any day and see butterflies and bees and other insects flying around, they're all going to these plants. And these plants are using these insects in one way or the other. They're just not quite using them up like Venus flytrap does. Yeah, they're using them to help pollinate. That's why they do that. Yeah, because they want the bee to fly away. Right. They, the Venus flytrap does not want anything to fly away. No. It says, come here. Let me eat you. So here's what happens. If you look at a Venus flytrap when it's unfolded and beautiful and has all these little beads of

sweet nectar on it, an insect will land on that. And on each side of what are they called petals? I saw lobes. Okay. Yeah, I like that. The thing that connects them in the middle is called the midrib. The midrib? Uh-huh. Not the midrib. The midrib. I was about to say that's good eating. You only get it at certain times of the year. That's right. On each lobe, you've got three little trigger hairs arranged in a little triangular pattern. And these are part motion detectors and part sort of timers almost. Because when a little fly or a spider or any kind of insect that's small enough lands in there, and we should say by small enough, we mean, ideally about a third of the size of those two lobes can't go much bigger than that.

No, and they're not big. It's not a big plant. I saw that they grow to be about five inches tall. Yeah, they're small. Yeah, they're fairly small. And then each plant will have, you know, between five and 10, I think fly traps on it. Yeah, like if you get your information from Little Shop of Horrors, you're being misled. Right. So you've got these little trigger hairs. And once one of those is flicked by a fly leg or an ant leg or a spider, it's sort of a timer kind of starts. And they've got about 20 or 30 seconds to dance around that thing without hitting either that one again or one of those other trigger hairs. And once it hits the second one, or hits that first one the second time within that little timer, that is when the trap closes

in a fraction of a second. Yeah, like the blink of an eye. Oh, yeah, it's super quick. And, you know, I think one of the things that makes it seem animal like is it's, it's really hard to find a nature documentary about the Venus fly trap without some sort of foreboding orchestral music playing in the background. Yeah, for sure. So it really kind of juices it up a little bit. But here's the deal is they don't, they don't know exactly why or exactly how the mechanism works since it doesn't have a brain. You know, they know they trigger that trigger hair and then it claps shut, but all they've got is a pretty good hypothesis. Yeah, so what they think happens is that the lobes stay open like that you just liken it to a mouth. So the mouth is wide open on the Venus fly trap by

the cells around that, the lobe, I guess around the midrib and the lobe where they connect, are basically being crumpled. And then something about the trigger hairs being stepped on starts to de-crumple that. It starts to release a little bit of pressure. And then when that second hair is triggered, the pressure is fully released. And they think what happens is through the use of burning ATP for energy, that the water pressure changes in those cells so that they go from being crumpled to being plump. And so they're no longer holding the flower open or the mouth open, so it just shuts. And all of that is, again, carried out by those action potentials, which starts with the trigger hair being stimulated, which somehow creates an electro

chemical transmission that goes through the plant cells to tell it, get ready, get ready, because it might happen again. And when it happens again, it says, okay, release the water, and then the thing snaps shut, which is pretty neat. But even after that, even after that second stimulation and the mouth closes, that's not the end of the whole process. There's still another third one, and it has to do with those amazing trigger hairs as well. Yeah, like this to me, it's already pretty remarkable that this plant can do this. And I knew, I kind of knew all that stuff, but this is when it really floors me, because even before I got to this part, I started thinking like, well, yeah, but how long does this take

and to reset the trap? What if something kind of floats through there that's not an insect, and it just happens to trigger two of those hairs? Does it just open right back up? Does it spit it out? Like, ooh, I don't want this thing in there. What if some dumb little kid sticks his finger in there? It's going to close, of course, because it's triggering the trigger hairs. Yeah, and you should not do that, by the way. No, you should totally not do that. But that's why I said dumb little kid. So what it counts on is a living thing squirming around in there once it's sort of, you know, it's not sealed tight exactly at the very, very beginning. It's like shut. Ideally, they're not getting out, but maybe a fly can slip out if it's quick enough,

or maybe it can work its way out. But all that's doing is triggering those little trigger hairs again. And that's the signal basically that like, no, no, no, you've got a living thing in here. It's not a something that fell off a tree or whatever that you don't want. So now is the time where you really, really close down and lock down tight. Yeah, once the thing's been inside squirming, because like you're saying, it's like, it's got a live one here. One of the other things that just I found absolutely astounding, Chuck, is when the when the Venus flytrap seals shut, when it's like, okay, I've got a bug in here, and I want to go ahead and start eating it. The little things that look like teeth, the cilia, they lace together and form an airtight seal.

And there's a couple of reasons for this. One, it keeps the bug from escaping, which couldn't really get out after the second hair was tripped. Like it forms a cage, but then after it squirms around inside that cage, then it seals tight, airtight, and that's it for the bug, by the way. And it keeps the bug inside. It also keeps bacteria from entering, because this is not a fast process, what's about to happen. It takes the course of days before it's completed. And in that time, bacteria can enter through any like hole in that seal. And so the seal prevents bacteria from getting in and rotting the bug and in turn rotting the Venus flytrap, causing the poor little flytrap to turn black and fall off. So I saw it takes about an hour or two to fully seal.

It takes about, you remember I said earlier, like, what if something just happens to go? How long does it take to reset the trap? Right. That takes about 12 hours, if there's a... Like a twig or something? Some debris? Yeah, but I was looking for kind of a fun word for a, that's not sexual. How about a twig? Like a false alarm, but my mind just keeps going to dirty places. Well, like what? I have no idea. Yeah, a false alarm. Let's just call it that. No, no, what were you gonna think that was dirty? What were you thinking that was dirty? Well, I can't. I'll tell you later, I guess. I can't say it out loud. I gotta figure this out. Oh, I know what you mean. Let's just say it's a false alarm about 12 hours. And then

the entire digestive process can take a week or more. Yeah, like if there is an actual bug in there, it takes about a week to digest it. It doesn't sound like a pleasant way to go for a bug to be trapped in a venous flytrap because after that seal is completely sealed, would you say it takes about a couple hours, an hour or two for that seal to be airtight? Yes. The whole time that bug is still alive, Chuck, and it's still just sitting there flipping and flopping against those trigger hairs. And this is the other service that the trigger hairs provide that I referred to earlier, that when they're stimulated again after this thing is sealed, what they're doing is telling the venous flytrap, oh, okay, this thing's about this size.

It's not a big thing. It's about medium size. So I only need to release a little bit of digestive enzymes. And this is a really great adaptation because it's really energy intense to produce digestive enzymes. So the fact that it just kind of doles out just enough to dissolve whatever's in there, whatever size insect is in there is pretty astounding. And it judges this somehow, some way in a mindless sort of way by how much those trigger hairs are tripped while the thing is squirming around in the sealing flytrap. It's just awesome that it can do that. Yeah. I mean, and this jumps to the end a little bit, but the reason it does that is because it can only do that so much. They do recycle what they can from those juices at the end of the process,

but I get the feeling with each opening and digestion and manufacturing of those enzymes and recycling of what they can of those enzymes, it just gets a little bit less and a little bit less until eventually the lobes can't do their job anymore. And then they just stay open and say, all right, I'll just be a regular plant and soak up the sun. I'm just going to photosynthesize, brother. I showed my daughter that this morning when, before she left for school, I was watching these videos, it's like, oh man, she's going to love this. And she watched it and got really sad about the fly. Oh, that's sweet. And it's because of the way they shoot these, they do that dramatic music. Yeah. And she's conditioned, you know, she's been disnified. So it's like, it's Bambi's mom

in there, you know? Yeah. It's Bambi's fly, mother. Or it's Dory. Sure. Dory the fly version. Just show her a fly close up. Or have her listen to our flies episode and she'll be like, I don't care. I know. The other thing they do that really kind of is really easy to overlook, but definitely, perhaps overly dramatizes a Venus fly trap shutting on a fly is they'll very often dub in like a Panthers roar right when it, right when it shuts. And it's, you can't pick it out unless you're looking for it. But when you are, it just sticks out like a sore thumb. I think they get about 10 to 12, either partial or complete closures per lobe set. So that's how long they can hang in there before they coast into retirement. Not a bad run. And when you consider that they're only

eating an insect every like week or two maybe. Yeah. In the wild. About three times a month. Yeah. So multiply that times 10 to 12. And that's your lifespan basically. Although I did see that they can live 20 years in the wild. Well, because they'll regenerate new lobes eventually, right? Yes. So yeah, they grow from a rhizome and those things pop up, but the plant itself, that's a fairly long live plant. Yeah. So, okay. So inside, so one thing I feel is worth like explicitly mentioning here. With the Venus fly trap, you've got this open mouth and then when it closes, it converts into a stomach. It's kind of like one of those washers. It's also a dryer once the wash cycle's over, right? I've always wanted one of those. Yeah. I think it'd be pretty

cool. Why are they all that? I've never heard if they actually like work or not, but maybe we'll just, we'll go in Dutch on one together. Okay. And see, we'll just trade it off month to month. Well, we'll rent a, I don't have room for it neither do you. Okay. We'll rent a storage space. Yes. And we'll just buy a little single unit. We'll hire an electrician and a plumber to come out and outfit it for a washer dryer combo. Right. And our bunk beds from the old days will be moved in there just for nostalgia. Yeah. But this time we'll be able to wash our sheets. Sounds like a plan. So in this, what went from the mouth now, the stomach, those digestive juices, just enough to melt basically the bug that's in there based on

its size and its score minus, they flood this thing. And again, over the course of like five to 12 days, it's going to basically break down all the soft tissue inside that bug, inside its exoskeleton and basically liquefied into goo until it just kind of mixes in with the digestive juices. Right. And then in this mouth that's now become a stomach, the nutrients that that fly or that spider, that ant carried around with it, that became liquefied are broken down into like really tiny basic particles like amino acids and stuff. Not even like proteins, like even more basic than that. And then the plant absorbs it just like you do when you're gut. Right. And it uses those nutrients to do things like build cell walls or repair its DNA or to transport

water throughout its body. Just not so stuff. Right. And then there's one other trigger. There's one other signal that happens where when the digestive enzyme is basically all that's in there, all the nutrients have been sucked out. Somehow it is able to analyze the ratio of digestive juice to nutrients. And when there's basically nothing but digestive juices left, it reabsorbs the digestive juice and that acts as a trigger for those cells to compress again and the mouth to come back open. And then ideally a gentle breeze will blow away what's left. There's a little exoskeleton in there. Yeah. And then Audrey's ready again. And again, about a week to 12 days, it depends on how big. If it's a little ant, it's going to be quicker. Sure. We mentioned

that the juices get weaker. So if it's an older trap or set of lobes, it's going to take a little longer and then the temperature can actually speed it up a little bit. If it's warmer and there's more heat, then there's going to be a faster breakdown. So that'll also speed it along. Yeah. Just amazing, man. I mean, I knew it was going to be an amazing topic, but I was even astounded by how amazing these things are. But we're not done. We're going to take a break and we're going to come back and tell you all about if you want to grow one of these monsters in your house, what you can do right after this. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass.

The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep. We know that Michael and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story

of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangeh Shatikhar and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get second hand astrology. And lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention because maybe there is magic in the stars. If you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses,

Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. If you're a fan of Broadway or Evolution or Charles Darwin or Ancient Folklore or just freaking out your neighbor's kids or your own kids or grandkids, and you want a Venus flytrap in your house, you can do that. You don't have to live in

the Carolinas. You just have to set up an environment that is like you're in the Carolinas, in your home somewhere. Yes. You have to become a Tar Heels fan. Or outside your home. Yeah. Because I mean, I'm sure in the Atlanta Piedmont, in probably parts of Alabama, in North Florida, you could probably grow these things in a pot outside. Probably so. But if you live in, say, a much colder area above the Mason-Dixon line, probably, or in a much drier area, like the Southwest, you're going to have to unnaturalize it a little bit. For example, if you live in a low humidity area, you would want to probably put this thing in a terrarium. Yeah. And that's, I've always wanted a terrarium. I think they're fun.

Sure. So get a terrarium, make it wet in there. You're going to have a, I think about a four-inch pot is a decent starter pot. And you may not need anything else, actually, because they're really not that big, like you said. And you got to keep checking that soil. You don't want it swimming in water, but you definitely don't want it to dry out at any point. Yeah. And you also don't want to water it from above. I didn't see why, but I suspect that it might, like a raindrop could conceivably cause it to close accidentally if you've got enough water splattering on it and triggering those trigger hairs. Oh, I wonder if they grow in the wild under more densely covered areas to prevent that. That's possible. But so what you do is you

water them from the bottom up. You place them in a pan or a little tray of standing water about a third of an inch or a centimeter deep. Oh boy. Here we go. What? Watering tips with Josh. Well, listen, there's one, there's something else that you want to keep in mind. I think most people wouldn't realize is like, you can't, you can't water these guys with tap water. Oh, I just got what reference you were making. You cut. How much standing water do we need? Like a million feet worth of water. Okay. Like you basically want to make sure that your house is completely flooded with water to make these things live. No, you bring a good point though. It needs, you can't, like tap water is no good and probably most of the filter water using is probably no good either.

No, because the salts and nutrients will build up in the soil and these things have evolved not to use that stuff and like it will actually harm them for the same reason you don't want to use fertilizer either. They don't need fertilizer. They need bugs basically. Yeah, they said, and I thought this is really cool, just collect some rainwater. That's your best bet. If you can't collect enough, if you live in Phoenix and you want to grow a venous fly trap, you're already kind of growing upstream, but you may not be able to collect that rainwater either. So at least get some deionized water, maybe some distilled water, or if you've got a reverse osmosis system, which you might in Phoenix, then you can use that stuff too.

You can use that stuff. And if you don't have a reverse osmosis system, you can buy it usually at any aquarium store. They sell that. Okay. So the water is very important. What kind of water you use? Again, don't use fertilizer. And apparently, because they grow in areas that get cold in the winter, if you are growing one in a terrarium from November to February, you want to take it out of a terrarium and put it in a window in your garage or something like that. Let it actually get cold. And you're going to get freaked out because the plant will actually die back to the rhizome. And it'll look like you lost it or something like that. But then come March, you're going to be pleasantly surprised when it comes bouncing right back. Yeah. And you

can treat it like any plant that you overwinter that kind of goes dormant. You can clip off the dead detritus and it'll grow back. How many of those are we going to get per plant? Like four or five? I think it's a five to 10 somewhere. Oh, five to 10 even. Okay. That's what I saw, but I could be making that up. There's a lot of numbers flying around in this one. But what about the feeding? You know, if you have this thing in your house or in a terrarium, you're not just going to count on a rando fly that got in or a lacuco racha to walk into its midst. So just like if you have a constrictor and you got to, you know, go to the pet store to pick up some mice, you're going to have to feed this thing. Yeah. Apparently you can feed it live bugs,

but you know, there's problems with live bugs. Apparently live mealworms can actually burrow their way out of the plant, which is not pleasant for the plant, I'm sure. Crickets can easily get too big or can stick a leg out, which will keep that seal from getting air tight so they can decompose from bacteria that gets slipped in that can actually make the plant decompose too. So your best bet is to get some freeze dried mealworm, bloodworms or crickets, put a little water on there, stir them up, and then you put it, drop it on the plant in its mouth, basically. And so you might get a closure response from just dropping it in there because it might hit a couple of cilia, but don't forget, like it's not going to start releasing those digestive

enzymes until it's cilia, the little trigger hairs are stimulated once it's closed. So you actually have to have like a little toothpick or something like that and just very lightly, very gently kind of rub those cilia so that it'll close fully and release those digestive enzymes. Right. And like you said earlier, don't invite your neighbor's kids over to trigger this thing for fun because it only gets 10 or 12 of those closures and you're literally shortening the lifespan of that lobe if you're doing so for fun. So you got to drop an insect. You probably won't be able to catch any flies. Even if you're good with those chopsticks, very few can accomplish that feat. Sure. You have to be friends with Pat Morita. And they got to be small. Remember

about a third the size. I told you I worked with Pat Morita once, right? No. A music video. Oh, which one? I don't think you have to. I want to say it was one Emily produced and I worked for it. I think it was Alien Ant Farm and they did a Karate Kid Send Up and Pat Morita starred. And I was Pat Morita's guy that day to get him what he needed in his trailer. And he was as nice as he could be. RIP, God Rest His Soul. And I don't think it's a big deal to say that Pat Morita loved sipping on Chardonnay during the day on a shoot. Oh, yeah. He didn't get plaster or anything, but he wanted a bottle of wine, a nice bottle of white Chardonnay. And he was just a lovely guy. How positively cultured. I know. I heard Mr. T likes to drink huge cups of,

I don't know what it was he was drinking, but he would, he'd like to drink on set as well during the day. Oh, really? Interesting. I did a Wycliffe video one time and he and his crew, they really drank. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I mean, sometimes those music videos, that was just sort of the, it was just sort of a party atmosphere like they would use as an excuse to be like, all right, all my friends are coming in for 24 hours and we're just going to get down. Yeah. And I also had one of the coolest experiences of my music video life on that Wycliffe job and that I was standing kind of right next to a, and I'm just so square, I don't know what it's called when they're improv, rapping and like dissing each other,

like the competition style. I don't know what that's called. It's called an eight mile. Yeah. It's called an eight mile face off. Okay. That's what I said. I went, hey guys, nice eight mile face off. But I got to kind of witness one of those in person and I was like, oh my God, it's like the talent is just off the chart. So it was good because sometimes those things are really not good. No, I mean, these were pros. Oh, good. Man, I'll bet that was cool to see. It was fun, but they were fun too. Wow. Did we say everything there is to say about Venus fly traps? I also had to put a joint in Buster Rhymes lips. I think I've told that story. Buster Rhymes didn't smoke pot. He smokes marijuana, believe it or not, because he was in a,

in a, the video for give me some, oh, he was fake tied to the train tracks in one scene. So he was, he couldn't move and he was on the ground and he would always ask me, I would stand by and hold the burning blunt and I would put it in his lips every, you know, probably eight seconds. Good Lord. It was great. Like those are the fun things you can do as a PA sometimes. I recommend it. Those are some cool stories, Chuck. Good. Yeah, you can really get in the mix. Yeah. Has nothing to do with Venus fly traps though, but it does now. Well, if you want to know more about Venus fly traps, go buy one. You can buy one online. Although supposedly you should probably go to a nursery that specializes in carnivorous plants because they actually

know what they're talking about. So start there. Okay. Can you grow them from seed? You can. You can grow them from seed. You can also divide them like as they get to be adult size right before they come out of their winter dormancy is a good time to divide them. So they make great gifts. I love it. And since Chuck said he loves it, of course, everybody, it's time for a listener mail. I'm going to call this Clark me a listener mail. Okay. Did you see this one? It sounds familiar. It's from a few weeks ago. Hey guys, just want to tell you that I've been subtly weaving Clark as a verb in the conversations with my family for the last three weeks. This is Leslie. This is mom that's doing this. Okay. At first I did it just to be funny and see

what they would say. None of them had heard that particular episode and don't even know about Clarking, but no one questioned it. I asked my husband to Clark me a $10 bill and I told my son I would Clark him a notebook for school and told one of my daughters that someone could Clark her a phone charger. It's awesome. Everyone just proceeded as if I'd said nothing out of the ordinary and it was totally surreal. Anyway, I just had to share that with you guys because I feel like I have a hilarious inside joke with no one to laugh about it with. If you do read this on the air and how could we not? Will you please shout out my husband Clint and my kids Jackson. It looks like Emma and Grace, or maybe M, E-M-M-E. Thanks for what you do. I'm a longtime listener. Love your show so much.

It's perfect for those like me who have a love of learning and laughing and that is from Leslie and her family. Just sound wonderful and it says something about how much they're listening to you Leslie. I hate to break it too. Yeah, that's pretty great. Or they're just like mom's gone off a rocker I guess. We'll just go with it. Clark mom a break. What a great email. I'm going to guess the middle kid's name is Emmy. Okay. So we've got M, E-M-E and M-O. I don't think we can miss Chuck. Unless it's just the artist formerly known as. Well, thanks again Leslie. That was a great email. One of the all time greats if you ask me. And if you want to throw in your two cents and see if you can compete with Leslie's email, we would love to hear it. You can send it to us at Stuff

Podcast at iHeartRadio.com. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart Podcast. Frosted tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you

listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe. You can find it in Major League Baseball, international banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.