Identify Cockroach Bites

Although it may seem obvious, the easiest way to identify a cockroach bite is to catch a roach biting you. If you can do that it will be supremely obvious that a cockroach has bitten you.

However, cockroaches are not always that obvious and they often bite people while they sleep. So if you wake up and find an insect bite somewhere on you, how do you know if it is a roach bite?

The first step is to look at the size of the bite, the most common biting cockroach is the German roach and they are not only found in Germany! The German cockroach is typically 1.3 to 1.6 cms long (between 1/2 and 5/8 inch). It’s mandibles are thus around 1 to 2 mm apart. American roaches are about twice as big with mandible length of 2 to 4 mm.

A cockroach bite is similar to begbug bite but slightly larger and it will be rare to receive multiple cockroach bites at once. The bitten area of the skin with be bright red between 1 and 4 mm wide but the skin will likely react to the bite and raise up around the bitten area like mosquito bite.

It is not uncommon for a cockroach bite to become infected, in which case the area will become inflamed and filled with pus and could become as large as the palm of your hand.

Although cockroach bites are relatively rare, they do occur. As mentioned in how to prevent a cockroach bite, a cockroach will bite because it is trying to eat food that has stuck to your skin or because the roach is scared. Mystery cockroach bites are most often from food. If you suspect you were bitten by a cockroach, then look around the area where you slept; is there food around? Could you have crumbs in your bed? Did you brush your teeth before bed?

It is very very common to mistake bedbug bites for cockroach bites. Look for the presence of food which could indicate a cockroach vs no food indicating more likely a bed bug. The other way to tell the difference is in the number of bites, if you have only one or two bites very close together, it could be a cockroach that accidentally bit you trying to eat something stuck to your body. If, however, you have many bites or bites in very different places on your body, it is more likely that you have bedbugs.

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