Cockroach bite: do they bite, what it looks like, and what to do

Can cockroaches bite you?

A review of the scientific reports found twenty cases of cockroaches biting people. The worst were on ships so overrun that the insects gnawed the crew's skin and nails, and in one case sailors slept in gloves to keep them off their fingernails.

When it happens, cockroaches most often gnaw fingernails, the eyelashes of sleeping children, and the hard skin on hands and feet. They can also leave small wounds on softer skin. The American and the Australian cockroach are the two most often blamed.

Do cockroaches in the Philippines bite?

They can. The American and the Australian cockroach, the two big ones that come in from drains and gardens, are both found in Philippine homes. The small German cockroach of the kitchen has also been reported biting people, in very heavy infestations, and feeding on food left on the faces of people asleep. All of these are unusual. The cockroach identifier shows how to tell the four apart.

What a cockroach bite looks like

There is no mark that says cockroach. The reports describe gnawed fingernails and toenails, eyelashes chewed short, rough patches on the hard skin of hands and feet, and small wounds on softer skin. We found no medical source that describes a typical cockroach bite on the skin. Many websites say it looks like a mosquito bite, but when we traced that claim it led back to pest-company blogs.

So a red, itchy bump on its own cannot tell you a cockroach did it. A gnawed nail or missing lashes after a night with cockroaches in the bedroom point that way. Itchy bumps, sometimes in a line, on skin that was against the mattress are worth checking against bed bug bites.

A cockroach bite near the eye

Cockroaches go for the eyelashes and eyelid skin of sleeping children, not the eye itself. The risk is a scratch on the surface of the eye from their spiny legs, or a bit of dirt left in it when the child wakes and rubs.

Because the eyelashes of sleeping children are one of the places cockroaches gnaw, a bite near the eye should be seen by a doctor. On the way:

• Do not rub the eye or squeeze the eyelids.
• If there is dirt or a small particle on the surface of the eye, rinse it gently with clean water.
• Wash the skin around the eye with soap and water, keeping soap out of the eye itself.

Go for emergency care if the eye is painful and red, if vision blurs or doubles, if a scratch or cut seems to reach the eyeball, or if bleeding will not stop. Never try to pick out anything that looks stuck in the eye. The full first aid, in Filipino, is in kagat ng ipis sa mata.