Economy Pest Control serves the Greater Boston area with high-quality termite and pest control.

Cockroaches and Human Health

Cockroaches are an intolerable threat to human health and well-being. They contaminate our food with their droppings, bodily secretions, and shed skins; and impart a nauseating odor to areas where they are living.

Roaches have been implicated in increased rates of asthma and allergies among inner-city children. The droppings, shed skins, and bodily secretions of roaches appear to be powerful allergens in their own right, even absent the presence of disease-causing organisms.

Cockroaches are also known or suspected vectors of many diseases, including Salmonella, E.Coli, Hepatitis E, diarrhea, and dysentery. Recent research suggests that they may also play a role in the transmission of pneumonia.

In most cases, cockroaches transmit the causative agents of these diseases when they come in contact with microorganisms in the course of walking through filth. The disease-causing organisms are picked up on the roaches' legs and bodies, where they are carried to and deposited on food, food preparation surfaces, and utensils. Disease-causing organisms may also be spread when humans touch areas where cockroaches have been walking, or when roaches walk directly on a person's body (especially on the face or near the mouth or nose).

The disease-carrying nature of cockroaches, their secretive habits, their high reproductive potential, and their ability to develop resistance to many pesticides make cockroach problems a job for a professional exterminator. In the Greater Boston area, contact Economy Pest Control.

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