What are dangerous cockroaches for humans?
Content
Harm from cockroaches, many associated with contamination of food and human dwellings. But, these "lodgers" are much more dangerous than it seems. In the culture of many nations, insects had significant roles, and only cockroach at all times caused disgust and desire to rid the home of a person from his presence. Consider in detail how dangerous cockroaches are for a person in an apartment.
Dangerous disease vectors
Cockroaches are a synanthropic type of insect that is not a parasite. They are attracted by constancy. human housing microclimate, therefore, they maximally adapted themselves in order to survive alongside the person.
Interesting!
Scientists, exploring these representatives of arthropods, found out that they not only developed the instinct of self-preservation during close proximity to humans, but also have a genetic memory that allows them to adapt to the tricks of humans to destroy them. Developed resistance to insecticidesused in the apartment is passed down to all subsequent generations.
Actually, cockroaches number more than 4,600 species, but only those that use food, waste, and human or domestic animal feces are of medical value. On its bristly paws, chitinous cover and in the digestive system, the pests carry:
- 32 types of pathogenic bacteria;
- 17 types of fungi;
- 3 types of protozoa, such as intestinal amoebas that cause colitis, dysentery (amebiasis), toxoplasma, which are dangerous causative agents of a serious disease - toxoplasmosis;
- 2 strains of polio virus;
- helminth eggs.
Inside the cockroaches, tapeworms develop, staphylococci are found on the antennae. In the intestines of dangerous neighbors found pathogens of typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, salmonellosis. Moreover, the pathogenic microflora does not cause concern to the cockroaches themselves.
Pliers, which parasitize on the Prussians, can bite and human, transfer disease-causing organisms from the host (cockroach) into the human blood.
Interesting!
One of the students S.P. Botkin treated patients suffering from dropsy with a preparation prepared from dried and powdered black cockroaches. The drug had some diuretic effect, but could not compete with more effective and less extravagant drugs.
Cockroaches are dangerous because they carry diseases that can lead a person to severe disability or death. There are cases of infection with meningitis, pneumonia, salmonellosis. In addition to mechanical contamination, when infected with food and household items, cockroaches have a dangerous effect on human health, biting him.
Danger of cockroach bites
In the book Urban Entomology, Walter Ebeling mentions that in 1957-1960. in the medical literature, about 20 cases were examined when cockroaches bit people. In the novel by L. Tolstoy "Peter the Great", facts are also given when hordes of cockroaches flooding village houses bit the children, in their cradles, fingers, cheeks and earlobes. Pest bites are rare, as there is always food and water in the apartment. But registered cases confirm that, having a well-organized mouth apparatus, cockroaches can not only gnaw the upper layer of the epidermis, but also leave deep wounds in the soft parts of the body - on the eyelids, neck, cheeks, fingers.
Bites do not heal well due to infection. The most important factor than dangerous cockroach bites and is a secondary infection, which penetrates into the wounds from the body and jaws of insects. Scientists believe that prusak bites are triggered by a lack of water, so for a person who does not resist in a dream, they can lick saliva, tears, and sweat glands. The second factor that caused arthropod bites is a sharp increase in population.The invaders who breed in a confined space simply do not have enough food.
In cockroach saliva, there is a protein that causes allergic reactions, so redness, rashes, and itching and soreness can be observed at the bite sites.
Interesting!
People suffer from cockroach bites, but the pests themselves are subject to such attacks. In the tropics, the emerald wasp lives, which, with its bites, “zombies” the tropical congener of our Prusaks, brings them into its nest and lays eggs in its body. Hatching larvae devour this lively “food container”. It is striking that a wasp, which is 2-3 times smaller than a zombie, is not able to drag prey to the nest, but the poison it injects takes the insect's ability to make meaningful movements. Then the wasp for a mustache, as if for a leash, leads a huge cockroach to his lair.
Cockroach Allergy
After it became known what diseases suffer cockroaches, scientists continued to study these arthropods and found that 435 species of cockroaches have an effect on humans, causing allergic reactions.About 60% of patients with asthma are allergic to Prusaks and their waste products - particles of chitinous cover discarded during molting, excrement.
In patients with atopic bronchial asthma, allergies have been identified to those foods that are most in love with these dangerous pests. In this case, the allergic reaction is not caused by the insects themselves, but by their excrement, containing particles of allergenic products.
Allergy to cockroaches is expressed not only in asthmatic attacks, there is a skin reaction, atopic dermatitis, conjunctivitis, rhinitis. Constant contact with unpleasant neighbors, occupying the house, leads to chronic allergies.
Living Foreign Body Syndrome
Brisk, mobile Prussians can crawl into the smallest holes. At night, they can get in your ears, a person's nose, causing severe pain. Climbing into the ear canal, the cockroach cannot get back on its own due to the nature of the ear. Moving a mustache and legs, the insect injures the walls of the ear canal and can disrupt the integrity of the ear membrane. Only a doctor can use the special tools to remove the pest.Such a false parasitism is described in the scientific literature. An ENT doctor from Nebraska writes that he repeatedly took insects from the ear canal of his patients.
Cockroaches in the apartment are harmful not only to the health of the inhabitants of the home, being omnivorous creatures, they spoil the stocks, the roots of books, leather, paper, wool, feathers. Any organic matter can become food for cockroaches.
Interesting!
Harm to people from cockroaches was always. Even in times when there were no pest control chemicals, people tried to get rid of them in various ways. There are prayers conspiracies, magical rituals that help expel the “Prusacks” from their homes. They were buried in tiny coffins in the cemetery, released into the courtyard of a neighbor, in the hope that all the Prussians would go to another house.
Modern means of dealing with dangerous insects make life easier for people, effectively exterminating them. But often, domestic animals become a victim of “poisoned” addicts. Curious cats and dogs, eating cockroaches, can be seriously affected by contact insecticides.
Intense Disinfection significantly reduces the population of cockroaches,but many types of poisons do not act on “lodgers”, since in their respiratory system there are valves that block access to the body by aerosols, and genetic polymorphism promotes the rapid development of resistance to poison.
Cockroach Control with varying success is conducted for thousands of years, as evidenced by historical and literary works. It was proposed to assign a special name to the danger that cockroaches bring to people. A. Zelev proposed to name the disease that pests cause blattopterosis, from the Latin word Blattoptera - cockroaches. This fact can serve as an answer to the question: “Are cockroaches dangerous?” If the danger that these synanthropic insects bring is assigned its own name, then it has already passed from the category of minor troubles and discomfort to the category of real danger.