An inexpensive roach trap can easily be made from a deep smooth-walled jar with some roach food inside, placed with the top of the jar touching a wall or with sticks (outside the jar) leading up to the top, so that the roaches can reach the opening. Once inside, they cannot climb back out. An inch or so of water or stale beer (by itself a roach attractant) will ensure they drown. The method works well with the American cockroach but less so with the German cockroach.[37] A bit of Vaseline can be smeared on the inside of the jar to enhance slipperiness. The method is sometimes called the "Vegas roach trap" after it was popularized by a Las Vegas-based TV station. This version of the trap uses coffee grounds and water.[38]
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Some of the earliest writings about cockroaches encouraged their use as medicine. Pedanius Dioscorides (1st century), Abu Hanifa ad-Dainuri (9th century), and Kamal al-Din al-Damiri (14th century ) all offered medicines that either suggest grinding them up with oil or boiling them, and Lafcadio Hearn claimed[39] that in the 1870s many New Orleanians had great faith in a remedy of boiled cockroach tea
Cockroaches, 
