This mechanical Venus Fly Trap won’t really be much competition for that cloud of bloodthirsty vermin swarming around our back porch every summer, but maybe the one insect you catch with its motion-sensing maw might serve as a grim example to scare up all the others. This is not an insect control trap, anyway; it’s designed to harmlessly capture an insect or two for hours of fascinating study and contemplation.

The $19.95 battery-operated trap requires you to slather on some bait to lure in those unsuspecting creeps, but once they check in, they can’t check out — the plastic bug dungeon has snapped shut, erasing all hope of escape. Touted as a way to see bugs up close, we’re hoping curious kids using this won’t be pulling the wings off the poor critters, or using them for practicing their waterboarding techniques, deciding instead to humanely catch and release those hapless bugs.

Discovery Store, via CrunchGear