I was wondering if Cockaroches cause allergies?
I don't have Cockaroches, I was reading an older post regarding allergies and someone mentioned they were allergic to cockroaches and crickets, something about the shell. I was just curious if anyone had heard of these allergies or had experienced it. Are the symptoms the same or are their more physical symptoms? TIA
I am terrified with a passion of such creatures, my husband has to literally carry me when we're out and we encounter those huge ones. It's my phobia I actually hyperventilate if one happense to make it inside my home.
Absolutely! It's their feces, their saliva, their bodies.
http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=9&sub=22&cont=312
Yes! I did an allergy testing a few weeks ago and i got about three itchy bumps from all the concentrated liquid placed on my arms. One of them was cockroach essence -- which makes sense because as a child I was in a remote province in South East Asia, and we slept in mosquito nets and when I woke up I had a bump like a mosquito bite on my face, except 6x bigger. No mosquito could've flown in but those roaches are sneaky things (both are abundant in that area). Eww. Allergic or not, they are gross so keep away from them. Always keep your house clean :)
I don't know if you can be allergic to them themselves but they walk through everything so could have something on them that someone could be allergic to is what I think.
YES!. I don 't know by first hand experience, but I have seen and had friends who have allergies because of them. Some friends in the South had a huge problem with them in their neighbors apartment--then it went into their's. They have had breathing problems like asthma and skin issues---dermatitis, itchy,flaky skin, and skin sores.
So sorry if you are dealing with this yourself!
Hi C.,
Technically, cockroaches don't "cause" allergies, not does anything else for that matter. An allergy is an inappropriate response made by your immune system to a specific protein or glycoprotein (sugar-protein) in the environment that should not be recognized as a danger, and yet is.
But, to answer your question, yes, people can be allergic to cockroaches. Typically symptoms are those associated with other aeroallergens (allergens which are inhaled): sneezing, congestion, running nose, itchy eyes, and possibly hives. There are several proteins that animals such as cockroaches make that people can be allergic to. An allergic person might be sensitized to only one of these allergens, or several. Currently, testing methods (either skin prick or blood test) use an extract made from either from cockroach the whole animal or from feces, because the proteins made by the animal that cause allergy are shed in the feces. Two blood test manufacturers are working on developing allergy tests that identify specific proteins responsible for allergic sensitization, but neither has developed these tests for cockroaches as yet.
Before you run out to get tested though, consider whether or not there is a good reason to be. If you have come in contact with roaches -- or anything else for that matter, and have not had allergy symptoms, there's no reason to get tested and in fact, testing is more likely to give you a false-positive result in this case than to actually rule allergy out.
BTW, I have never heard of anyone having severe or life-threatening allergic reactions to cockroaches specifically, but anyone with allergic disease is at risk of developing asthma as the disease progresses. (Allergy is actually a progressive disease, and we refer to it -- especially in children -- as the allergic march. Asthma is the endpoint.) People with allergies to insect venoms, however, -- especially wasps and bees -- are at greater risk of severe responses.
yes - I just had allergy testing done, and that was one of the things on the list they they tested for.
For some people, yes.
Yes. They can most definitely cause allergies. It isn't so much the roach itself, but the droppings and the "shedding" they do. I used to live in Fresno, CA. when I was young and roaches were horrible! We were told that my mom's allergies were caused by the dust/droppings.
No.
Allergies are caused by the response of histamines in an individual person. Those histamines cause allergy symptoms.
What causes histamine response is different for different people. Yes, a person can be allergic to cockroaches (or, more likely, their feces), but the cockroach doesn't cause that allergy in everyone.
If you have roaches, I strongly recommend you get a professional exterminator. They are very tenacious and difficult to get rid of.
Best of luck!
Yes. When I did my allergy testing there was a box by American Cockroaches and one by German Cockroaches. So although those were 2 of the 4-6 boxes that were NOT checked on my page I do remember them just because almost all the others were checked.
If you are allergic to cockroaches, then yes. They won't cause allergies to other things though.
