Tum Kop (Isan Frog Pot Trap) — a Woven Bamboo Pot, 12 × 12 cm Bottom, Side Funnel Bound with Coconut Husk, Coconut-Shell Lid, or a Tin-Flap Door; Takes Frogs Alive at Night

"When the frogs come out to feed, they smell and hear the prey struggling inside the trap and look for a way in at the entrance, coming through the funnel or pushing the flap, and are caught inside with no way out." (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, author ทำนุ วรธงไชย (Thamnu Worathongchai), CC BY 4.0)

Shave flat strips, with a few round strips to help. Weave a square bottom 12 × 12 cm and brace it with two bamboo sticks crossed in an X, their ends fixed at the corners. Weave flat strips up into a pot belly, then curve inward to about 12 cm high. Leave a gap of standing strips only, curving in to the base of the neck, 6 cm high, then weave flat strips flaring out to the mouth, 7 cm high. Bind a bamboo strip round the mouth with cord; the mouth is 12 cm across. Weave round strips through the middle of the standing-strip gap to strengthen it.

Cut a round hole in the side, slightly above the ground, at the middle of the widest bulge, 5 cm across, and make a funnel mouth 6 cm wide. Weave the funnel with its tips pointing inward. Rub coconut husk into fibres, wrap them round the funnel's rim and bind tightly with bamboo strips. Cut a coconut shell and set it on the mouth as a lid; pierce its rim and tie it to the mouth with cord.

Weave a 10 × 10 cm bottom with no crossed sticks, raise a pot belly about 10 cm high, then gather the standing strips and cross them over the top: no neck, no mouth. Weave small round strips through the standing-strip gap. Cut a 4 × 6 cm rectangular door in the side of the bulge, cut a tin sheet into a flap, fit it inside and fix the door edge with flat strips. The flap opens inward but not outward.

Photos of real tum kop of both kinds from the Nong Bua Khok Folk Museum (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, author ทำนุ วรธงไชย (Thamnu Worathongchai), CC BY 4.0).

Use several at a time, in the pools in the paddies. Set them in the evening: scoop soil at the pool and set the trap so a little water stays inside, with the entrance at ground level; level the ground at the entrance. Put shrimp, crabs and fish inside, and some at the entrance, and leave it. For the flap type, push the flap up and tip the frogs out through the door.

Frogs feed at night, so farmers set tum kop in the evening at pools where shrimp and fish are stranded. The tum kop takes frogs alive. Beware of sharp tin edges. Source: Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, Traditional Objects of Everyday Use database, "ตุ้มกบ", author ทำนุ วรธงไชย (Thamnu Worathongchai), Nong Bua Khok Folk Museum, Buriram (CC BY 4.0 licence). **Limits** There is no listing for coconut husk, coconut shell or tin sheet, so they are named in the text.