Yes, believe it or not, it’s the humble frappuccino plastic container. For so long now, my brother-in-law has been swearing by this method of catching roaches. Supposedly, the coffee and cream attract the roaches, especially the sweet droplets left on the rim of the hole. Then, wanting more, they crawl further inward until they fall into the bottom of the cup. And once they’re in, they can’t seem to crawl back out, with the domed cover making escape impossible. No matter how adept roaches are at sticking to walls and ceilings, the slippery plastic surface of the dome makes them fall once they’re upside down. So their hairy sticky grimy germy legs are useless against the FRAP TRAP. Supposedly, my bro-in-law has left many a cup overnight, waking up to a veritable cockroach graveyard, with piles of lifeless invertebrates, one on top of the another, all covered in chocolate-flavored coffee and roach poop, probably excreted during their untimely creamy deaths.
Hating roaches with a passion, I’ve actually experimented with many ways to extinguish roaches in as efficient a way as possible. It’s been a spiritual quest for me, like a holy grail that I’ve been chasing, how to rid my life of these lowly excuses of a life form. I’ve tried brute physical strength, chemical warfare, folk remedies, you name it. I’ve tried squashing them with army boots, pounding them with hammers (not good if you have wooden floors), I’ve tried pouring soap suds on them (supposedly they die instantly, but they just seem to get a tad cleaner), I’ve tried shouting at them (I read somewhere that they have sensitive hearing), I’ve tried setting them on fire (this one backfires when flaming roaches start crawling up your drapes)…name it, I’ve tried it. The one technique I’ve found most effective is spraying alcohol on them. I have spray bottles in every room filled with isopropyl alcohol for the sole purpose of spraying on roaches that are stupid enough to come ambling along when I’m there. It may not be instant, but once they die in that pool of insect poison, they stay dead. Somehow the alcohol short-circuits their nervous systems completely. You know how sometimes you’ve stomped on a roach a hundred times and it still manages to revive itself and walk away? Not with this method. One time I even decided to do an experiment: I poured a whole bottle of rubbing alcohol down the drain of our bathroom floor (I thought, bring the war to the bastards, to their homes, and hit them where it hurts most). BAD IDEA. Within seconds, I had what seems like hundreds or it seemed to me thousands of roaches of all shapes and sizes, scrambling from the drainage holes to escape the alcohol deluge I just poured into their “city”. I screamed like a 3-year-old girl and jumped on top of our toilet hollering for help before I die engulfed in a wave of cockroaches!
You get the point. I hate roaches. So I finally decided to try the FRAP TRAP. Instead of tossing the plastic cup in the trash, I brought it home and placed it on the floor of our pantry. They love that place because that’s where we store our rice, dog food, etc. And the next morning, voila! One dead roach. Okay, it was a bit underwhelming, I was expecting the container to be filled to the brim with insect carcasses, some still gasping their last breaths, but at least I know it works. So now, next time you pass by your favorite cafe, any of those that use this domed plastic container, give it a try. Who knows, it might work wonders for you. Plus, it’s chemical-free, so you don’t have to breathe in any of those toxic chemicals in most commercially available insect sprays. I just hope all that creaminess won’t attract rats…
hahahaha… ako naman after ko uminom ng gatas o decaf coffee sa gabi…nagiiwan ako ng di lusaw ng asukal…kinabukasan 3 o 4 ang natrap…gross! kaya hugasang mabuti ang baso/mug kinabukasan…mainam din ang softdrink bottles…
I swear I loathe roaches, too.
I was laughing by myself when you poured alcohol on the drainage… Benta ka talaga lagi, Chico!
I was also wondering if it will work on rats too, haha! This is the first time I’ve heard of such technique… Might as well give that Frap Trap a try sometimes.
I hope your brother-in-law finds a technique on how to instantly kill the flying ones. Then, let us know if he does. 😛
hmmmmn, nice idea but i wouldn’t try it. I have toddlers who really likes frapuccinos. Imagine them holding the cups and never giving a second look. I’ll stick with the alcohol thing. 🙂
same here! i hate roaches! funny entry chico.
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effective din ang softdrinks or beer bottle… lalo na yung may laman pa na konti.
yes, this is, especially beer. now, so that they won’t escape from the container or eventually die upon escape, place cockroach gel baits inside. 😉
I can’t say in words how I can relate to your dilemma, Chico. Ive tried the sugar-left-in-coffee-mug approach, it works too! but they can still crawl out sometimes, but nonetheless effective. But I must say, the “frap trap” is brilliant! hooray to the inventor!
just be prepared of the rats chico. hehehe
i’d like to give this a try..
but, wouldn’t it attract ants?
what about those blasted flying ones? i hate them with a passion 😛
My super technique is scalding them with boiled water 😀 its chemical-free, and it supposed to kill all the germs 😛 plus you don’t need to clean their squashed innards off the floor.
The story on the drain is horrific @_@ Perhaps you can try pouring boiled water down the drain. They’ll die instantly ~_~
FTW ! I ❤ this blog. Very informative. :))
Katakot pala si sir chico once he's declared war with someone/something. :-S all out. Para bellum.
HOORAY FOR FRAP TRAPS!! this is one of the greatest discoveries ever! tnx to your bro-in-law. I hate cockroaches more than any other living creature on earth (aside from snakes, of course.) i don’t think they serve any purpose but to spread diseases. my biology teacher in college once told us that roaches brush themselves after they get close to humans. kapal!! if that’s true, ang kapal naman nila! ngayon, patay sila!! mag brush-themselves sila to death! hahaha!!
and you know that classic “amoy ipis”? it’s their vomit. they vomit on their food first as part of their feeding process. fyi. 😉
yun pala yun!! yuck! it’s one of the most disgusting smell!
natawa naman ako sa “shouting at roaches”, tsaka ung nagbuhos ka ng alcohol sa drain at naglabasan sila. LOL talaga!! i could just imagine…
you know what, alcohol is effective. i tried it last night and it worked!
LOL on your “alcohol on the drainage” story.
But believe it or not, dishwashing liquids like JOY are more effective than alcohol. As in, instant death to all roaches. bwahahaha!
You just put a generous amount of Joy Ultra on a spray bottle then fill it with water. shake shake and voila! instant roach killer. works on spiders and ants too. i’ve tried it and promise, it works.
BTW, was that you on Starbucks Araneta last Saturday.
I really wanted to approach you and say Hi but I was so shy. I’ve always been a silent fan. =)
And shampoos, too! I’m thinking all thick, gooey substances are great roach-killers (kills in less than 5 seconds, faster than alcohol!), but I haven’t tried anything else aside from Joy and (Pantene) shampoo.
A friend uses Domex cleanser. ;p
really interesting! matry nga yan… masaya pa din pumatay using the tsinelas power!! hahaha
I thought I was the only one who swears by alcohol! I find that isopropyl works better than ethyl too.
The soap naman try liquid soap. Mix with a little water and you can put it in a squirt gun, have some fun while you’re at it (wag lang yung flying roaches omg… unless you’re a good shot!) Biogenic comes with a spritz bottle so i use that… also works with mosquitoes 😀
Alcohol will always be my preference. When I use soap they tend to excrete yucky stuff during their death throes.
Otherwise… I yell for my sister and run away fast.
hahaha! i laughed so hard at the shouting part and pouring alcohol on the drain! 🙂
i super hate roaches, too. what worked for me was the blattanex ala-injection thing. we don’t have roaches at home now, because of that. i have a toddler so i’m super careful with what i put at home but you’ll need just half a centimeter of that blattanex in every corner. voila! no roaches! (and no, they didn’t pay me to endorse them!) 🙂
good luck on your quest for a no-roach zone!
haha, chico! this one is a classic blog for me, and you know why! 😉
i assume you’d never ever dream of becoming an entomologist. before i finished college in UPLB, i believe i must have dissected (the way HS students do it on frogs) over 100 American cockroaches (yes, the flying, reddish brown, smelly filthy ones) and made extra money by catching and selling them at P5 each for other students.
i have so many thoughts on this but the best i can give is this. yes, this is an effective and innovative way to trap them. but i guess your brother must have discovered this one time he left a cup on a cockroach-infested area. which means, congratulations!… if you caught just one cockroach overnight, you have a relatively clean home at the time you did this and makes me conclude you may have a very manageable cockroach infestation level (written like a true pest control company owner).
it’ll definitely trap/kill roaches. but it’ll also definitely attract ants.. LoL..
funny entry though.. 😀
Haha! I’ve tried it! I only caught two, though (but really fat, bloated ones). And guess what, I think the roaches in our house were kinda choosy. The first night I tried it with a pretty cheap brand (from a convenience store), walang yatang na-attract. Kelangan pa talaga international brand of frap.
sabi nila ma-cut off lang daw yung respiratory system ng ipis, patay na yun.
ayun, sinasakal ko na lang sila…
i feel you chico,. i’d try the frap trap later,..and also the alchol pouring,..;p
i remember my cousin she’s so scared of roaches, she would use a vacuum cleaner to make higop the ipis from the wall..hahaha!!!
I cannot imagine you shrieking! Hahaha! I hate roaches too! Now, I don’t think I’d be having a frap for a year because of you.
i suddenly remembered that old twilight zone episode, a guy trapped in a room w/ a mattress-ful of roaches. hay naku, ilang araw akong binangungot non. ikamamatay ko ata yung diri! lol..thanks for sharing frap trap, though. try ko to talaga.
bwahahaha… funny story on shouting at the roaches and declaring war through alcohol, very lol!
Have somebody tried muriatic acid spray already? I’m curious 😀
i love how you describe things. how you tell stories. you have a wonderful gift. i can almost hear you scream like a 3-year old girl and see you jump on top of your toilet as you hollered for help. hehehe!
i hate roaches too but i just can’t kill them! i would usually need a broom to smack them with or have someone else kill them. and the cleanup afterwards.. not fun and definitely not funny.
i just came from an International Pest Management convention at SMX this week. i just learned from Dr. Lee Chow Yang, a distinguished expert on Cockroaches in Asia described that on his lab, the best roach trap is a jar with brown paper or sock wrapped on it. inside the jar, the surface must have jelly on its surface. the bait inside must be a piece of bread soaked in beer.
wrap a crumpled or brown paper on your plastic coffee trap to assist the cockroaches in climbing to the top and surely, if there really are many cockroaches around, they’ll find their way to it. the plastic surface serves like the jelly already. better yet, try the best bait… beer on bread! 😉
I’ve had very good success with the Combat Roach killing gel that comes with a syringe-type applicator. Easy to apply and no mess!
where did you buy that brand? good and well-placed gel baits are the best cockroach control pesticide available today? not those aerosols or liquid sprays. 🙂
hire a professional exterminator to do the job. had a lot of ants inside and outside our house and was worried that christmas will come so madaming pagkain at madaming ants din. now, wala na kahit isa. it works for roaches too. may warranty pa sila for 2 years, we paid 5K for the treatment of the house. sulit.:)