Can Cockroaches Eat Humans?
Cockroaches can be a menace to your home, but you’ll never know if they’re going to bite you. These insects usually attack at night, when people are sleeping. While they’re not likely to bite you, they may take advantage of the opportunity to feed on your face or hands.
In fact, cockroaches are omnivores, which means that they will eat just about anything. Whether it’s meat, cheese, or glue, cockroaches will raid your home to feed. When food is scarce, they will often turn cannibal and feed on weaker members of their own species.
While cockroaches don’t tend to bite humans without being hungry, they may bite you when you’re asleep, or you’re in an area where there’s less food available. A Denver pest control service can help you keep cockroaches out of your home and prevent painful bites.
The mouthparts of cockroaches are very similar to those of mammals, but they work differently. Roaches have secondary chewing parts that grind food into tiny pieces and pull it into their digestive tracts. In addition to that, they have lips called labium, which resemble human lips, and seal the chewing cavity to prevent food from spilling out.
In some instances, cockroaches have altered the bodies of humans postmortem, which raises questions about the cause of death. Some cockroaches have changed the appearance of skin patches around the mouth, and one case was even reported where the victim was arrested for poisoning based on these patches. However, the investigation revealed no evidence that poison had been used, and the authorities concluded that the patches were most likely caused by cockroaches.