Roach Motel is an American brand of a

roach bait Roach bait is a modern pest control used for the extermination of cockroaches at indoor locations. The effectiveness of this method of pest control exploits the cannibalistic and coprophagic tendencies of cockroaches. Mechanism Cockroaches liv ...

device designed to catch

cockroach Cockroaches (or roaches) are a Paraphyly, paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are we ...

es. Although the term is the subject of a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

registration by the insect control brand Black Flag, the phrase roach motel has come to be used as a reference to all traps that use a

scent An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and animals can perceive via their sense ...

or other form of bait to lure cockroaches into a compartment in which a sticky substance causes them to become trapped. Introduced in late 1976 in response to the success of

d-CON d-CON is an American brand of rodent control products owned and distributed in the United States by the UK-based consumer goods company Reckitt. The d-CON product line includes traps and baits for use around the home for trapping and killing ra ...

's roach trap, the Roach Motel quickly became a successful entrant in the industry. By 1979, ''New York'' magazine reported, "On the strength of its whimsical packaging and an aggressive ad campaign, the Roach Motel now dominates the market, outselling the closest competition by as much as three to one in some cities." Early versions of the Roach Motels used food-based bait, but later designs incorporated

pheromone A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

s. The widely known

tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, s ...

of the Roach Motel was, "Roaches check in, but they don't check out!" This phrase has also been applied to information technology systems such as

enterprise resource planning Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of business management software—typically a sui ...

, which readily capture transactions data but make it difficult for organizations to access, report and analyze the data stored in the system. Black Flag also marketed a related insect trap, the "Flyport," designed to deal with unwanted flying insects like houseflies, with the tagline, "Lots of arrivals, but no departures!" It was less successful than the Roach Motel. "Roach Motel" is United States federal trademark No. 1,059,314, for which Black Flag claims a date of earliest use of May 7, 1976.

References

External links

Information
at Black Flag website Insecticide brands Products introduced in 1976 Trademarks American brands {{Product-stub