If your house is heavily infested with roaches, it is not uncommon to find cockroaches in your stuff. From utensils to food, everything might carry cockroaches or their products. However, it’s time for you to take drastic actions, or else you may face the consequences in the form of disease, allergies, and property damages.
If you find a cockroach in your food, follow these guidelines,
- Stay calm, do not panic and reasure yourself.
- Recall if you have any known allergies to cockroaches or their products such as droppings.
- If you have known allergies, see if you have eaten a cockroach or its part?
- Try to induce vommiting and immediatly consult a registerd health practioner.
- If you are at resturent contact staff or manger.
- If you are at home, Evaluate food for more roaches.
- Try to identify the cockroach.
- Examine your kitchen and search for the cause.
- Rectify the cause and exterminate roaches to prevent it from happening in future.
The disgust and loathing associated with finding cockroaches in your food is a normal part of human psychology. However, a few things need to be done to avoid this from happening in the future. Therefore, I have written this blog to help you cope with finding a cockroach in your food. Furthermore, I will guide you to prevent this in the future.
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2. Hot Shot Foggers (To kill in masses – 95%)
3. Pet Safe Killers (Uses Essential Oils)
4. Ortho Defence Outdoor Roach Killer (Prevent Roaches)
Do Cockroaches Contaminate Food?
Cockroaches are the bane of every homeowner’s existence. They are disgusting, they can carry harmful bacteria, and they can make your home uninhabitable. If your home is heavily infested with cockroaches, it is not uncommon to find them contaminating your food.
Cockroaches are attracted to the smell of food, especially starchy and sweet foods. They are most active at night when you are sleeping. Cockroaches can infest the fridge and microwave oven. Contaminating uncovered food sitting outside is as easy as pie for them.
Furthermore, they carry several bacterias, including Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumonia(Source). These bacterias can contaminate food via roaches and cause the worst diseases known to humanity.
Do you know that peanut butter contains crushed bugs? Read Are there Bugs in Peanut Butter? to learn more.
What to do if you find a Cockroach in your Food?
Humans are designed to make mistakes. No one is perfect, and sometimes the worst can happen to you, like finding a cockroach in your food. However, a humble and good person has control over his emotions.
If you find a cockroach in your food, follow these steps,
Step 1: Don’t Panic
The first step is to control your nerves. Try not to panic or shout. All you need to do is reassure yourself that you will be absolutely fine. There are slight chances that you will be affected at all. Think that many societies even consider cockroaches as a delicacy.
Step 2: Recall Known allergies to Roaches
Recall if you have any known allergies to cockroach and their body parts. This is important because some of us might have known allergies. For example, coffee ground contains roaches and their body parts, inducing an allergic reaction in some consumers.
Step 4: Induce Vomiting, if Needed
See if you have eaten a cockroach or its body part. If you have eaten some of it and have a known allergy to roaches, try to induce vomiting. You can induce vomiting by drinking a lot of milk and then eliciting the reflex by irritating your throat with a finger or a spoon.
Step 5: Contact Manager if your at Resturent
Call the staff and ask the manager if you are at a restaurant. Don’t try to create a scene. Instead, tell them about your concerns and call the local food authority if needed.
They must be held accountable because it involves public health and hygiene concerns. It is your right to ask for compensation.
Step 6: Evaluate Food for more Roaches
If you are home, try to evaluate the whole food on your plate and at the kitchen for more roaches. This will help you identify the level of infestation.
Step 7: Identify the Type of Cockroach
Identifying the type of cockroach is essential because most small roaches are very filthy as they visit sewage more often, thus having higher chances of transmitting disease. Furthermore, small roaches also multiply fast and infest homes more.
On the other hand, if your food contains a palmetto bug, it is most likely an accident, and you don’t need to worry at all.
Step 8: Identify and Rectify the Cause
If your food contains small roaches, try to identify the cause of infestation. First, you need to see the level of infestation and then try to exterminate them. To learn How do exterminators get rid of roaches? Read this article
You may be wondering, Where Do Roaches Come From? Read this article to get your answers.
Can Cockroaches make my Baby Sick?
Cockroaches are known to transmit diseases like typhoid fever. They are also known to trigger allergies in babies known to have allergies to cockroaches.
Babies usually play and often pick up items from the floor and try to chew them. Therefore, if your house is heavily infested with cockroaches, it will most likely make your baby sick at some point in time.
Moreover, babies are also allergic to insecticide sprays, and you must use them cautiously. So instead, I recommend Natural Roach Repellents to keep roaches at bay, and you must get rid of roaches overnight to avoid babies’ sensitization to roaches.
Additional Read!
