US3802116A

US3802116A - Device for capturing cockroaches

Info

Publication number: US3802116A
Application number: US00265256A
Authority: US
Inventors: H Yoshizane; S Nishino; Y Takei; H Meguro; T Muramoto
Original assignee: Fumakilla Ltd
Current assignee: Fumakilla Ltd
Priority date: 1971-08-20
Filing date: 1972-06-22
Publication date: 1974-04-09
Anticipated expiration: 1991-04-09
Also published as: FR2150313A1; FR2150313B1; IT958660B; AU4356272A; AU465919B2; MY8800153A; ES182538U; GB1396586A; ES182538Y

Abstract

A device for capturing cockroaches which has an attracting body having a food retainer and a plurality of passages connecting the food retainer to the exterior. A lower shield plate open-able only from the exterior is disposed in each passage, and a capturing body having removable upper shield plates rests on the attracting body and has communication ports opposite to the lower shield plates at the bottom thereof. The upper shield plates are openable only from the attracting body side at the communication ports. The lower shield plates are rotatably supported on the upper portion of the passages by bearing shafts and are inclined toward the food retainer side. Each lower shield plate has a ventilating portion of sawtooth shape at its lower end and preferably a balance weight on the upper end thereof on the other side of the bearing shaft from the ventilating portion.

Description

[22] Filed:

United States Patent 11 11 Meguro et al. p i

[ DEVICE FOR CAPTURING COCKROACHES [75] Inventors: Hisakatu Meguro; Takayoshi Muramoto; Shingi Nishino;

Yasuharu Takei; Hiroshi Yoshizane, all of Hiroshima-ken, Japan [73] Assignee: Fumakilla Limited, Tokyo, Japan June 22, 1972 [21] Appl. No: 265,256

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Aug. 20, 1971 Japan 46-74313 Aug. 20, 1971 Japan 46-74314 [52 us. Cl. 43/121 [51] Int. Cl ..A01m l/l0 [58] Field of Search 43/121 56 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS I 1,134,318 4/1915 Deardoff 43/121 1,788,047 1/1931 Brunner 43/121 X 1111 3,802,116 Apr. 9, 1974 Primary Examiner-Antonio F. Guida Assistant Examiner-Daniel J. Leach Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Armstrong & Wegner [5 7] ABSTRACT A device for'capturing cockroaches which has an attracting body having a food retainer and a plurality of passages connecting the food retainer to the exterior.

A lower shield plate open-able only from the exterior is disposed in each passage, and a capturing body having removable upper shield plates rests on the attracting body and has communication ports opposite to the 1 lower shield plates at the bottom thereof. The upper shield plates are openable only from the attracting body side at the communication ports. The lower shield plates are rotatably supported on the upper por- 7 tion of the passages by bearing shafts and are inclined toward the food retainer side. Each lower shield plate has a ventilating portion of sawtooth shape at its lower end and preferably abalance weight on the upper end thereof on the other side of the bearing shaft from the ventilating portion.

12 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAPR 91914 SHEEIiUFd PATENTEBAPR 9 I974 sumu ora l DEVICE FOR CAPTURING COCKROACI-IES This invention relates to a device for capturing cockroaches. Although harmful insects such as cockroaches were originally from the Torrid Zone, their distribution area is increasingly expanded as the human culture pro-' gressesand the circumstances ofhuman life is varied with the result that cockroaches have increased all over the world to impart a great deal of defects to the human life. The cockroaches are grotesque and smell peculiarly bad thus giving us an uncomfortable and dirty feeling. Further, they propagate pathogenic bacteria such as dysentery bacillus, colon bacillus, poliovirus, etc. and are thus most harmful insects. These cockroaches live in the residence of human beings, and hide themselves from the human world in the daytime in groups and activate at night so as to obtain food. In addition, they are very harmful polyphagous insects, and feed-not only human foods, but paper, being scatophagous, and propagate greatly, and indefinitelydevelop to live for long periods with the result that it is difficult to eliminate them. In order to eliminate them at present, there exist food poisoning insecticides, residual coating insecticides, etc., but they are relatively ineffective.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a novel device for capturing cockroaches.

-It is another object of the present invention to provide a device for capturing cockroaches which may exterminate the cockroaches sanitarily, simply, efiiciently andpositively by utilizing their habits against them. 7 'It is a further object of the present inventionto provide a method of capturing cockroaches. 1

his still another object of the present invention to provide a device'for capturing cockroaches which .is adapted for gatheringpreferably'and using attractive foods. I a Still further objects and the entire scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter; it should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific example, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modification within the spirit and scope of'the invention will become apparent to'those skilled in the art from this detailed description. i T These objects are performed by'a device for capturing cockroaches which comprises an attracting body having'a food retainer and passages formed from the exterior of .the food retainer toboth side walls and a lower shield plate openable only from the exterior in the passages, and a capturing body having a removable upper shield plate rested on the attracting body'and having communication ports opposite to the lower shield plate at bottom thereof and'upper shield .plate openable only from the attracting body side at the communication ports to permit removal.

Whenthe device for capturing cockroaches of the present invention is placed where the cockroaches are frequentlypresent, the cockroacheswhich hide themselves behind the articles at daytime crawl about at night to, obtain food, whereupon they gather by the attraction of the smell of food in the capturing device, and migrate through the passages therein to push .up the lower shield plate to enter the food retainer thereof, and are prevented from escaping by the lower shield plate. Entry into the capturing chamber occurs by of the capturing body of the device; FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a further'embodipushing the upper shield plate in a vertical direction at the bottom of the body of the capturing device through the communication port. The cockroaches thus entered into the capturing chamber cannot escape any further, and will therefore die. In order to treat the captured cockroaches, the capturing body is removed therefrom,'and the cockroaches captured therein are taken out.

The invention will be readily understood from the following description, when read together with the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the device for capturing cockroaches accordingto the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the attracting body of the device;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the attracting body;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the device taken along the line IV-lV in FIG. 3; 7

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the capturing body of the device;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the bottom of the capturing body; 7

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the device taken along the line VII-VII in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 and 9 are perspective views of the lower shield plate of the device;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the attracting body of the device;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of another embodiment ment of the attracting body of the device; and

FIG. 13 is a perspective view' of a further embodiment of the capturing body of the device.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 4, which show the device for capturing cockroaches which is the subject of the present invention, an attracting body 1 has a food retainer 2 with a recess at the center thereof, and passages 3 radially formed by side walls 4 for communicating the exterior of the device with the food retainer 2 and lower shield plates 5 provided in the passages 3 and mounted rotatably with bearing shafts 6 at both side walls 4 of the passages and at the upper portions of the walls 4 at theupper ends thereof. The lower shield plate 5 is inclined toward the food retainer 2, and has ventilating portion 7 of sawtooth shape formed at the lower end thereof. The lower shield plate 5 has a feather plate which opens by a slight external force but does not open by an internal force as will be hereinafter described. Therefore, the food retainer 2 is normally isolated from the exterior of the device by the side walls 4, lower shield plates 5, and capturing body 8.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, which illustrate the capturing body of the device, the capturing body 8 is so constructed that the portions corresponding to thepassages 3 and the lower shield plates 5 in the attracting body are located on the bottom plate 9 and are open. Bearing members 11 are provided at the positions interleaved withthe communication ports 10 of these openings, and both sides of one end of each upper shield plate 12 is rotatably supported by the bearing shafts atthese bearing members 11. These upper shield plates 12 close the communication ports 10 and the ventilating portions 13 of sawtooth shape are formed at theother end of each the upper shield plates 12. Further, engaging legs 14 are provided such as to correspond to the outside of the side walls 4 of the food retainer 2 of the attracting body 1. The capturing body 8 has a capturing chamber 16 formed by placing a cover on the bottom plate 9. A knob 17 is provided on the cover 15 for conveniently remove the cover 15. The capturing body 8 thus constructed engages removably with the engaging legs 14 correspondingly to the side walls 4 of the attracting body 1;

The first feature of the capturing device of the present invention resides in the structure of the lower shield plates 5 provided at the inlet passages 3 as the first barrier for attracting to capture the cockroaches. As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9,which illustrates the lower shield plate of the capturing device, the lower shield plate 5 has a bearing shaft 6 at the upper end thereof, which shaft 6 is rotatably supported at both side walls 4 forming passages 3 and at the upper portion of the walls 4, and inclined toward the food retainer 2. Therefore, the lower shield plates 5 thus inclined toward the food retainer 2 opens when pushed from the exterior, but since the lower end of the plates 5 reach the bottom, even if they are pushed from the interior, they do not open at all. Since these shield plates 5 are inclined, they are adapted so that the cockroaches which have entered into the attracting portion head toward the capturing chamber 16 as will be hereinafter described. As shown in FIG. 8, the lower shield plates 5 may be of mere plate, but in order to enhance the capturing effect, using light material'to enable pushing with extremely slight force, and as shown in FIG. 9, a balance weight 18 is provided at the opposite end of the lower shield plate Sand extending from the bearing shaft 6 provided at the upper end thereof as the pivoting center of the lower shield plate 5 so as to enable opening to occur with extremely slight force with the result that the cockroaches may initially entereasily into the inter-' This balancing may be varied in any rate according to the weight of thelower shield plate 5 extended to the opposite side from the bearing shaft 6, but if the balance weight is greater, it is anticipated that the cockroaches which have entered into the interior may raise the lower shield plate 5 to escape, and accordingly the preferable weight of the lower shield plate is from 0.02

to 0.2 g. It is also preferable that the proper size of cutout of sawtooth shape is provided at the lower end of the lower shield plate 5 so that it is feasible that the smell of the attracting food in the interior of the device willemanate outwardly, and so that the food can be seen from the exterior, and may be contacted directly from the exterior, and the ventilating portion 7 is. provided thereat, which is very preferred at the viewpoint of the habits due to the activity of the cockroaches in searching for food. As is clear from the third embodiment, there exists considerable difference depending upon the presence or absence of the ventilating portion 7 at the lower end of the lower shield plate.

The second feature of the capturing device of the present invention resides in the separate provision of the attracting portion and the capturing portionin such a manner that the capturing portion is removably provided at the upper body of the attracting portion This results from the detailed studies of the habit of the cockroaches, such that the cockroaches move freely on the flat surface and inclined surface in their normal traveling activities, but when they have entered into the closed box, they abruptly move quickly to look for escaping route, in which case they look for a first upward escaping port, and if no such escaping port is found thereat, they look for other places. Therefore, the device for capturing cockroaches which is the subject matter of the present invention first'attracts the cockroaches to the attracting portion, and then encourages them upwardly, and when they have entered into the capturing chamber 16, they cannot escape at all.

For such purposes, the capturing body 8 has communication ports 10 opposite to the passages 3 on the bottom plate 9, and upper shield plates 12 are provided at the communication ports 10. Ventilating portion 13 of sawtooth shape is formed normally on the upper'shield plate 12. Therefore, the cockroaches which have entered into the attracting portion of the device lose their escape route by the lower shield plates 5, and advance along the upper shield plate 12 to push up the upper shield plate l2'from the communicationpo'rt 10 provided at the bottom plate 9 of the capturing body 8 according to their habits so as to enter the capturing chamber 16. Since the upper shield plate 12 is rotatably supported at body sides by the bearing member 11 provided on the bottom plate 9 by the bearing shaft provided at one end of the shield plate 12, it may open if pushed from the lower portion, but since the other end thereof is supported by the bottomplate 9, it may not open even if pushed from the upper portion. Accordingly, the cockroaches entered into the capturing chamber 16 completely lose any method of escape and die.

Thus, since the capturing device of this invention has a separate attracting portion and the capturing portion, the cockroaches which have entered into the attracting portion move toward the capturing portion according to their habit before feeding upon the food thus being economical in saving the food. Further, since the capturing portion of the device is so provided as to be easily removable in a free fashion the capturing body 8 is removed from the attracting body 1 when asufficient number of cockroaches have entered thereinto, so as to treat the captured cockroaches by any means such as immersing in water, etc. Thus,'only the food is saved, but the device may always be rendered clean with only a cleaning of the capturing body 8 without cleaning the entire device frequently. Since the device is thus constructed, the food retainer 2 of the attracting portion may always be maintained vacant, and accordingly it does not afiect the cockroaches entered thereafter, but the following cockroaches may enter continuously to capture of a great deal of cockroaches with extreme efficiency. In addition, if the engaging legs 14 are formed in box communication with the capturing chamber 16, the cockroaches which entered into the capturing chamber 16 fall therein to be contained, and therefore a great deal of cockroaches are captured in a compact manner thus rendering the device most advantageous.

1f the food retainer is so constructed as to also function as the capturing portion, the larva of small cockroaches may escape from the ventilating portion 7 at the lower end of the lower shield plates 5, but in the capturing device of the present invention, the larva move toward the capturing chamber 16 according to their habit, and if the cutouts of the ventilating portion 13 of the upper shield plate 12 are lessened, small larva may easily be captured. As shown by the fourth embodiment, this does not affect greatly capturing of large type of black cockroaches, but clearly affects the capturing of small type brown feather cockroaches, and particularly their larva. If the cover is made of transparent plastic, the interior of the device is easily seen so as to immediately investigate the captured state cockroaches, and accordingly is very convenient. As the de vice for capturing the cockroaches of the present invention may be of any circular, elliptical, rectangular, square, polygonal shape, etc., and the inlet may not only be in one direction, but in a multi-direction. The place ofuse may be optional depending upon the cap turing effect.

Reference is now made to FIGS. and 11, which show another embodiment of the device for capturing the cockroaches of this invention, and will now be described as follows: 7 e

This embodiment is similar to the previous embodiment, but the shape of the device is circular. The engaging legs 14 are constructed so that the capturing chamber of the capturing body 8 is simultaneously engaged with the cutout recess portion 19 of the attracting body 1. Therefore, the cockroaches which have entered into the capturing chamber 16 fall in the interior of the engaging legs 14 of box shape to be contained,

and the upper portion of the capturing chamber 16 is opened to becomea removing port, at which point a cover 17 is removably placed thereon.

Referring now to FIGS. l 2and l '3, which showa further embodiment of the device ofthis invention for capturing the cockroaches this further embodiment of the device of this invention will now be described.

This embodiment is similar to the previous embodimerits, but the food retainer 2 and the passages 3 are formed by recessed walls 4, and engaging grooves 20 are formed on the upper surface of the recessed walls 4. 0n the other hand, 'a corresponding number ofpro; jections 21 to the number of the engaging grooves 20 areprojected for removable engagement with the err-- EXAMPLE 1 In the device for capturing cockroaches shown in FIGS. 1 to "7, the differences of the forces required for pushing up the lower shield plate 5 provided in the passages 3 due to their structural difference were measured. The measurement was conducted as to the device of the single feather plate type shown in FIG. 8 and as to the device of the balance spring plate type shown in FIG. 9 in such a manner that the thickness of the feather or shield plate 5 was made constant and the force required for raisingthe end of the shield plate 5 at the bearing shaft 6 as a fulcrum was measured by weight and expressed by the ratio with respect to that of the balance type. When the force of the device of balance type was 1, that ofand single feathertype was 2.1. The feather plate of the balance type used here had the ratio by weight of the front and rear portions of the cheese, potato, honey, rice bran, sesame, or their mixdimethyl 0-(3-methyl-4-nitrophenyl) thionophos phate(Phenitrothion), 0,0-diethyl 0-2-isopropyl-4- methyl-pyrimidyl-I 6)-thionophosphate (Diazinon),

5-Benzyl-3-furylmethyl chrysanthemate (Resmethrin),

bearing shaft of 6 to 4:3.

EXAMPLE 2 vice for capturing the cockroaches shown inFIGS. l to 7 was introduced with 5 g. for sugar as the food of the cockroaches and was placed in the corner of the box. Then, the number of captured cockroaches were observed after one day. As the lower shield plate, the plate of single feather plate type shown in FIG. 8 and the plate of balanced feather plate type shown in FIG. 9 were used in' such a manner that both feather or shield plates were provided with cutouts atthe end as the ventilating portion 7. Similar experiments were conducted as to the larva of black cockroaches, imagos of brown feather cockroaches and. larva thereof. The capturing effect due to the difference of the structure of the lower shield plate were examined. The results were as in Table I:

TABLE 1 Number of Captured Cockroaches Black Cockroaches Brown Feather Cockroaches Type of No. of Shield Experi- Images Larvas Imago: Larvas Plate merits Balance type I 3 6 4 4 2 6 8 7 1,1 3 2 l2 8 I0 4 5 I 8 l0 7 Mean 4.0 8.5 7.2 8.0 Single feather type 1 l 3 7 6 2 2 l 2 3 3 2 3 .5 2 4 4 3 2 5 Mean 2.2 2.5 4.0 4.0

EXAMPLE '3 In the method of the Example 2, the capturing effects of the cockroaches were examined as to the device having the lower shield plate having sawtooth cutouts as ventilating portion and the device having the lower shield plate having no ventilating portion, and the re- Sults shown in Table 2 were obtained. The lower shield plate was of feather balance type.

TABLE 2 Number of Captured Cockroaches Black Cockroaches Brown Feather Cockroaches Type of No. of Shield Experilmagos Larvas lmagos Larvas Plate ments With ventilating l 2 6 8 3 portion 2 l 4 l 9 3 5 3 l4 6 4 4 7 l2 13 Mean 3.0 5.0 l 1.0 7.7 Without ventilating l O O l 2 portion 2 0 0 0 3 3 0 O l 0 4 0 0 O I Mean 0 0 0.5 1.5

EXAMPLE4 In the method of the Example 2, the capturing effects of the cockroaches were examined as to the device having separate attracting portion and capturing portion as the present invention, and the device having the attracting portion functioning as the capturing portion in structure, and the results shown in Table 3 were obtained. The lower shield plate was of balance type having ventilating portion at the end shown in FIG. 9 for both devices.

TABLE 3 l. A device for capturing cockroaches comprising an attracting body having a food retainer, passages formed by vertical side walls and connecting said retainer with the exterior of the device, a lower shield plate adapted for opening only from the exterior and located in each of the passages, a capturing body having a removable bottom plate adapted for resting on said attracting body and having communication ports opposite to and connecting with said passages, an upper shield plate covering said communication ports and openable only from said attracting body side.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1, wherein each lower shield plate is rotatably supported on the upper portions of the side walls by a bearing shaft located at the upper end of said plate and each lower shield plate is inclined in such a manner that the lower end thereof is relatively close to the food retainer area.

3. A device as set forth in claim I, wherein each lower shield plate has a ventilating portion of sawtooth shape at the lower end thereof.

4. A device as set forth in claim 2, wherein each lower shield plate has a balance weight at the opposite side aroundthe bearing shaft of the upper end thereof.

5. A device as set forth in claim 2, wherein each lower shield plate has a balance weight at the upper end and around the bearing shaft, and also has a ventilating portion of sawtooth shape at the lower end thereof.

6. A device as set forth in claim 1, wherein each upper shield plate is supported by a bearing member provided at one end thereof and on the bottom plate of said capturing body.

7. A device as set forth in claim 6, wherein each upper shield plate has a ventilating portion of sawtooth shape at the end opposite the bearing member.

8. A device as set forth in claim 2, wherein said capturing body is removable from the attracting body and a capturing chamber is formed by a cover which encloses the bottom plate.

9. A device as set forth in claim 8, wherein said capturing body has engaging legs adapted for engagement with the outside of the side walls of said attracting body in a complementary and adjacent manner.

10. A device as set forth in claim 9, wherein said engaging legs are of box shape to form capturing chambers.

l l. A device as set forth in claim 2, wherein said capturing body has a removing port at a periphery thereof,

. at which port a closing plate is engaged with sliding turing body has a plurality of projections removably engaging within the said grooves, said projections being located on the lower surface of the bottom plate thereof.

Claims

1. A device for capturing cockroaches comprising an attracting body having a food retainer, passages formed by vertical side walls and connecting said retainer with the exterior of the device, a lower shield plate adapted for opening only from the exterior and located in each of the passages, a capturing body having a removable bottom plate adapted for resting on said attracting body and having communication ports opposite to and connecting with said passages, an upper shield plate covering said communication ports and openable only from said attracting body side.

3. A device as set forth in claim 1, wherein each lower shield plate has a ventilating portion of sawtooth shape at the lower end thereof.

4. A device as set forth in claim 2, wherein each lower shield plate has a balance weight at the opposite side around the bearing shaft of the upper end thereof.

11. A device as set forth in claim 2, wherein said capturing body has a removing port at a periphery thereof, at which port a closing plate is engaged with sliding grooves provided at the edges of said port.

12. A device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said attracting body has a plurality of grooves, and said capturing body has a plurality of projections removably engaging within the said grooves, said projections being located on the lower surface of the bottom plate thereof.