It's a box, with a sticky floor and poison inside it, and next to the entry holes with little fake curtains and a few flowers are - in very large letters - the English words:
Welcome! Welcome!
Twice. Which, I think, might put suspicion in the mind of the most trusting of cockroaches. I made it clear with all my screaming that I wasn't that keen on him. He may now be a little perturbed at my abrupt change in tone.
The fatal flaw, however, runs a little deeper than that. If my cockroach can, in fact, read well enough to know which holes to enter the trap through - and is drawn in by this subtle marketing strategy (perhaps, even, warmed by the enthusiasm with which he has been greeted) - he may well be slightly alarmed by the words just three inches higher, on the roof of the box:
Welcome to The Cockroach Death Trap!
I've put the box on the floor anyway, obviously. In fact, I've put down six, because he's entitled to make an informed decision about where exactly he is going to meet his maker. And they all have different coloured curtains.
I've just got to sit and pray, now, that my cockroach isn't very tall. Or that he pays as much attention in English reading class as my 14 year old boys do.
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