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!

Most definitely NOT a VFT. I think you've got some kind of herb (maybe pineapple sage???) Did you end up with little red flowers? I want to try my hand at growing VFTs as well and have been reading up on how to germinate and grow these fascinating plants. Here's a link I found very helpful about how to grow these guys. I just ordered some seeds on eBay, so we'll have to wait and see what comes up. BTW, you should be able to find photos of actual VFT seedlings online. They look just like mini VFT. Here is a link that might be useful: Venus Flytrap Info

I think your is doing fine, it is normal for the catchers/leaves to grow flat towards the ground. When these are shoved in those tiny little boxes or tubes they tend to get very leggy, stretching for light....some will also developed black catchers from so much condensation in the containers and causing to much humidity. Your plant looks very nice! If you give it lots of light, you will notice the catchers will turn reddish, which is nice. If you put it in a terrarium, keep the top open, add pebbles in the bottom, so it won't sit in water. but to me your plant looks healthy!

Just rinse the plants/traps off, it shouldn't be a big deal. Acclimate the plant a little bit every day to full Sun. It'll be fine.