Do domestic cockroaches bite a person

 


About 4,600 are known in the world species of cockroaches, in the territory of the CIS 55 has taken root. It is difficult to find at least one apartment building in which these nasty insects would not live. According to the estimated data, from 900 to 300,000 insects live in each house, most of which are cockroaches.Crawling pests are known for their survival. They can go without food for a long time, for several days without water, live without a head for almost a week, crawl quickly and withstand high radioactive radiation. But the question of whether people are bitten by cockroaches or not has been controversial for a long time. However, in the middle of the last century, scientists from America confirmed the involvement of insects in the eating of living flesh.

Cockroaches
Cockroaches

Red cockroaches in the home are called Prussians, believing that insects got into Russia from Prussia. In Germany and the Czech Republic it is believed that pests in their countries came from Russia, and therefore they are called Russen.

Can cockroaches bite a person

In 1960, after a series of experiments, American scientists stated that cockroaches can bite people. At the site of bites, a wound with a crust appears, which is prone to inflammatory processes and does not heal for a long time. Too impressionable persons, you should immediately reassure that insects can bite only in exceptional cases, which we will talk about later.

There are also cases when sailors on ships were attacked by pests. After a night of sleep, they found themselves biting - gnawed skin near the nails on their hands. The sailors had to sleep in gloves so that the cockroaches could not bite them.

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“I am a student and therefore I live in a dormitory. In our block constantly live red cockroaches. It’s impossible to withdraw them due to unscrupulous neighbors. Recently, a friend experienced a shock: she was bitten by cockroaches! Not only did these creatures get used to crawling everywhere, but now they also began to bite. The bite areas are very swollen and the skin is literally gnawed in the center. ”

Marina, 19 years old

How bite cockroaches

Insects are omnivores. Their diet may consist of food debris left behind by a person: crumbs, crusts, almost any food. The mouthparts of domestic parasites are designed in such a way that they can gnaw very hard food. In times of famine, paper, leather, and various materials become popular.

The gnawing oral organ consists of a modified upper and lower lips, crescent lower jaws and upper, on which there are notches that perform the role of teeth (see photo). Additional strength gives chitin, which covered jaws. Therefore, it is not surprising that cockroaches are able to bite a person, since their skin is relatively soft food.

Jaws of a cockroach
Jaws of a cockroach

What does a cockroach bite look like in a photo?

Human cockroaches bite in places where the skin is the thinnest: in the neck, lips, nasolabial fold, earlobes, at the fingertips, in the folds of the limbs. There are cases when young children had eyelashes nibbled. Insect bite when it comes to domestic red or black cockroachesusually painless. Pests are activated at night when a person is fast asleep. Attacking waking people they fear.

In places of cockroach bites, a red blister appears, sometimes redness and swelling spread within a radius of several centimeters. The authorship of the bite can be determined by the nature of the wound. The bugs leave behind a specific path, the other stinging insects are a small red spot, and after the baleen pests there is literally a gnawed open wound. Considering the bites of cockroaches in the photo, you can see a gray crust and large red spots.

Cockroach bites
Cockroach bites

When can a cockroach bite

The very fact of the presence of pests in the house and the fact that they crawl on people is already unpleasant, and the fact that they are capable of biting increases the hostility towards them doubly. Attacks and insect bites can be triggered by a number of factors:

  • The presence of crumbs in bed.
  • Lack of food encourages the Prussian to go in search of a new food base, and a sleeping person may be on the way.
  • Lack of water is more destructive than lack of food. In search of moisture, the insect may rush to human skin. A large part of the human body consists of water and the saliva secreted, the tear fluid may well attract a cockroach that feels thirsty.
  • An excessive increase in population size can increase competition among individuals for food and water. The lack of food can induce insects to pay attention to a person whose skin is perfectly applicable as a food source.

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“In my opinion, the fact that cockroaches can bite is not true and this is a contrived fact. Eating prusaks with human flesh is as common as cannibalism among people. Among the tips on extermination of cockroaches There is always a mention of the need to block access to food and water. Following the theory that the Prussians attack people with a shortage of this notorious water and food, many people would regularly be attacked by cockroaches. ”

Maxim, 39 years old

Danger of cockroach bites

A cockroach bite, like many other household pests, can be quite dangerous. Saliva and secretions contain fibrillary protein - tropomyosin, which provokes the appearance of allergic reactions, ranging from urticaria and ending with suffocation. In addition, cockroaches are carriers of dysentery and helminth eggs.

It has been scientifically proven that the very presence of baleen insects in a house contributes to asthma. According to statistics, people living in the vicinity of the Prussians are more likely to suffer a terrible disease than those in whose houses there are no pests.

First aid after bites

Cockroach bite treatment
Cockroach bite treatment

If a cockroach has bitten, it is necessary to treat the wound with an alcohol solution, hydrogen peroxide or chloro-xedinum, and then with anti-inflammatory ointment. When itching, allergic reactions should be treated with an antihistamine bite. In order to avoid penetration of the infection, the bite cannot be combed.

Cockroach Preventive Measures

Cases where cockroaches have bitten a person are not so numerous, and the risk of being bitten is exactly the same as winning the lottery. However, this is not a reason to refuse disinsection and do not poison the pests.In the shops of household chemicals presented a wide selection means for the destruction of cockroaches: crayons, dusts, baits, aerosols, smoke bombs, gels, powders (dusty). Many of them have proven their effectiveness:

Reduces the number of colonies contributes to boric acid, to which the cockroaches could not adapt. To prevent the appearance of insects in the house, it is necessary to process possible paths of entry of cockroaches from neighbors insecticidal agents. The apartment should not have free access to moisture and products.


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