Roach Motel

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Roach Motel is a term used to describe a roach bait device designed to catch cockroaches. Although the term is trademarked by the insect control brand, Black Flag, the phrase has come to be used as a reference to all traps that use a scent or other form of bait to lure cockroaches into a compartment in which a sticky substance causes them to become trapped.

Early versions of the Roach Motels used food-based bait, but later designs incorporated pheromones. The widely known tagline of the Roach Motel was "Roaches check in -- but they don't check out!" In the 1980s, this line was frequently delivered by Muhammad Ali, who was then a spokesman for the product.

The term "roach motel" also refers to a low-priced lodging facility, usually a considerably older property in disrepair, not affiliated with a major chain, and located in a decaying area of town.

[edit] Roach hotel metaphor in computing

Metaphorically, the term is used in computer circles to refer to a proprietary file standard -- "you can check your data in, but you can't check it out".

The "roach motel" phrase has been used to describe the Java platform's memory model, where the compiler or Java Virtual Machine are free to move a memory access into a synchronized block, but in general cannot remove them from a synchronized block.

[edit] The Roach Motel in popular culture

In A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Freddy Krueger kills a teenage girl (played by Brooke Theiss) by turning her into a cockroach, trapping her into a roach motel, and squishing it in his hand.