How Indoor Pests Affect Your Health

While an indoor insect infestation may be a major annoyance and source of stress, it can also pose a serious health risk. Many people don’t realize that common household pests like termites, ants, fleas, and cockroaches can cause a health hazard to your family and your pets, making it necessary to control them.

Indoor Air Pollution

Pests like cockroaches are known to leave behind allergens and can spread disease throughout your home. In fact, one intriguing study discovered that people who thought they were allergic to chocolate were actually having a reaction to ground-up cockroach parts found in every batch of chocolate.

This is based on the disturbing fact that the average chocolate bar contains eight insect parts. Less than 60 insect pieces per 100 g of chocolate are approved for safe consumption by the FDA. Of course, if you happen to have an allergy to one of these contaminants, then you may believe that you are allergic to the food instead of the source.

Household cockroaches are well known for irritating asthma sufferers and can cause a number of other related symptoms like itching, cramps, migraines, and hives. While cockroach allergies can be treated with allergy shots, it’s critical to get to the root of the issue and exterminate cockroaches within the four walls of a home to prevent an allergy attack.

Other pests like fleas, dust mites, bees, and wasps can also irritate allergies in allergy-prone individuals. In rare cases, some of these pests can cause a severe enough reaction to lead to anaphylaxis and even death.

Though it’s less common to find bees and wasps within a home, dust mites and cockroaches will cause indoor air pollution. Young asthmatic children are especially susceptible to cockroach-induced allergy or asthma attacks since allergens can easily spread through cockroach fecal droppings and saliva.

Last but not least, don’t forget about the fact that pests can carry bacteria and pathogens throughout a home, in and out of their hiding places. Cockroaches are known to carry 33 different types of bacteria from decaying matter and sewage on their bodies and legs.

How to Protect Your Family from In-Home Health Risks

While it may be frightening to consider the fact that common household pests can spread disease and trigger allergies in your home, consulting professional pest control companies will help you to eradicate the source of the issue. At the first sign of a pest, make sure to call a professional for help since you can be sure that hundreds of other pests aren’t far behind.