Can You Get Diseases From Touching a Cockroach?
Cockroaches are unhygienic scavengers and you can get a Diseases From Touching a Cockroach. How they feed, nest and crawl can lead to the accumulation of pathogenic organisms, which they transmit to food and surfaces. While they do not usually cause disease outbreaks in Canada, the presence of cockroaches in your space may signify poor sanitation. Roaches destroy materials at home, trigger asthma, and carry allergens that can cause serious illness in humans. Also, cockroaches transmit the disease indirectly through the consumption or handling of cockroach-contaminated items.
Specifically, cockroaches are suspected of carrying allergens that can cause campylobacteriosis, cholera, dysentery, gastroenteritis, giardia, plague, leprosy, listeriosis, salmonellosis, and typhoid Fever. They also trigger the spread of E.coli and Staphylococcus aureus.
In this article, you will learn about how roaches spread diseases, how you can get these diseases, and what to do after cockroach infestation.
How Cockroaches Spread Diseases
Cockroaches aren’t direct causes of diseases, but they carry organisms that cause several diseases. The indirect spread of diseases happens through their droppings, saliva, and direct contact.
After eating your food, they excrete it in the food and surfaces around it. Their droppings and saliva carry pathogens that can contaminate food and surfaces. Usually, in the kitchen, you’ll find cockroach droppings under the kitchen counters or behind the drawers.
In addition, they contaminate anything they touch or rub their body on. Their legs pick up pathogens easily. Can you get diseases from touching a cockroach? Touching cockroaches can contaminate your hand. You can get a disease when you touch your nose, mouth, eyes and open wounds with contaminated hands. If you touch a cockroach, ensure you wash your hand immediately with soap and water before you touch any food items.
How Can You Get a Disease From Cockroaches?
Even though cockroaches don’t cause diseases directly, you can catch cockroach-inhibited diseases when you:
- Eat contaminated food
- Drink contaminated juice
- Inhale contaminated air
- Touch contaminated surfaces
- Use contaminated utensils
- Touch dead or living cockroaches
What Attract Cockroaches To Your House?
Cockroaches seek food, shelter, and water in your home. Because they constantly search for food, they can enter your house through the tiniest opening. Depending on the location, they can enter through cracks in the exterior walls, dryer vents, or gaps between walls and floors. Make sure to look for any entry points on the exterior of your home and seal them. Here are things that attract cockroaches to your house:
- Moisture
Cockroaches need water for survival. Therefore, they are attracted to leaking pipes and faucets in the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry. They often hide under large appliances like refrigerators and air conditioning units that produce water during condensation. Typically, you will find roaches in the basement and the cabinet in dark places.
- Food
There are no exceptions when it comes to roaches seeking out food sources. The resilient pests will eat anything, even if your kitchen is spotless. Without food, they still feed on cardboard, leather, soap, wallpaper paste, book bindings, grease, and even human hair. They often hide in stacks of cardboard and books in your attic and garage.
- Trash and abandoned areas
In their search for shelter, they hide in abandoned areas at home, especially where you have trash. They are attracted to rip window screens. Outside the house, they are attracted to wood piles, uncleared gutter, compost, dense vegetation, and mulch. Ensure that you dispose of your trash daily, keep a trashing system far away from home and cover them always to avoid cockroaches.
What To Do After Cockroach Infestation Control
Clean-up is next after eliminating cockroach infestation. It can be challenging to clean your space because you can’t identify the exact surfaces that the roaches have crawled on. In this case, complete house cleaning is recommended.
Start with clearing the dead cockroaches. While cleaning up dead cockroaches, wear a face mask and gloves to avoid touching surfaces and inhaling contaminated air. Sweep hidden places like underneath the refrigerator with a broom. In addition, vacuum cracks and crevices suck dead roaches and eggs. Ensure that you dispose of the dirt in the bin properly.
Furthermore, clean every room you see the roaches thoroughly. Clean your kitchen counter, pans, and dishes. You can wipe the surfaces where the cockroaches have been suspected crawled through with germ-killer, hot water solution, or bleaches.
For bathrooms, wash the hand towel, disinfect, and mop surfaces like sinks, toilets, and soap dishes. Cockroaches are relentless super breeders and excellent hiders. Proper cleaning after infestation protects you and your family from illness.
How To Prevent Cockroach Infestation
As a result of the bacteria and allergen they carry, cockroach control is an emergency. To prevent cockroach infestation, you need to do the following:
- Seal all openings and gaps around your home.
- Remove all standing water in your environment.
- Fix leaking pipes and faucets.
- Clean kitchen counter after cooking.
- Keep a clean house by vacuuming regularly.
- Dispose of trash regularly.
- Keep compost and firewood far away from the house.
- Keep your grass and garden clean and tidy.
- Dehumidify the house to reduce extra moisture that attracts roaches.
If you have done everything and you are still experiencing cockroach infestation, you need a
local cockroach control expert to help you control the infestation.
Are you looking for how to get rid of cockroaches permanently in Canada? Call on cockroach exterminator – Provincial Pest Control (PPC). We boast of a team of professional cockroach exterminators with experience solving cockroach infestation problems. Typically, we start with proper inspection and offer subsequent day treatment where necessary. We will identify areas of concern and provide customized treatment to eliminate eggs and hidden nests.
Whether you suffer cockroach infestation at home or in your business spaces, we have a long-term control process that can eliminate them permanently. After treatment, we implement monitoring and evaluation practices to ensure the effectiveness of treatment. Interestingly, we offer free cockroach pest inspection. We are glad to reclaim your home for you. Contact us now.
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