Cockroaches

Cockroaches, orthopterous insects of the family Blattidae, a very rich species group (more than 2,000). The fauna of the USSR includes representatives of several genera: 1) Blatta (Periplaneta) orientalis - the black cockroach (see illustration); in the male the wings extend beyond the abdomen in both sexes; the forewings have dark spots, peripteneta^orieu- 4) Periplaneta americana - the American cockroach, 26-32mm, reddish-brown in color. Forewings and wings in both sexes. Introduced from the tropics; in the USSR it is found in greenhouses in Leningrad, Odessa and others. 5) Polyphaga aegyptiaca L. - the Egyptian cockroach, or shield-bug, found in Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Cockroaches undergo incomplete metamorphosis. Some species of cockroaches live only in houses and other buildings where there is sufficient moisture and warmth (kitchens, bakeries, bakeries, etc.), to which the cosmopolitan black cockroach belongs; others can live in the wild (Lapland cockroach, German cockroach). Cockroaches have gnawing mouthparts. They feed on bread, various flour products, meat, vegetables, sugar, oil, kitchen waste, etc. During the day they hide in cracks, and at night they come out to feed. Cockroaches not only spoil food products when they gnaw them, but also contaminate them with their excrement. The female lays eggs in a special cocoon. The specific smell characteristic of black cockroaches depends on the easily evaporating secretion of the skin's scent glands, opening on the back of the abdomen.

Medical-sanitary significance of cockroaches. The black cockroach can attack a sleeping person and gnaw at the epidermis; small, firmly adhering crusts form on the affected areas. When gnawing the skin, cockroaches release saliva, causing a slight acute inflammation (K. Pavlovsky and A. Stein). Cockroaches can eat sputum and fecal masses and become contaminated with these substances. It has been proven that cockroaches can be mechanical carriers of various pathogenic bacteria, for example, staphylococci, Bac. pyogenes aureus, cholera vibrio, typhoid bacilli, dysentery bacilli, tuberculosis bacilli, leprosy bacilli, etc. In addition, cockroaches can spread the eggs of parasitic worms and cysts of various protozoa. The spread of all these agents occurs mechanically: either through the contaminated external coverings (legs) of cockroaches or with their excrement, if the corresponding infectious agents were eaten by cockroaches. All these contaminations can get into human food. In addition, cockroaches are intermediate hosts of some parasitic worms - tapeworms [Ilymenolepis diminuta (Oldham)] and nematodes Gongylonema, with which Sambon (1925) associated the etiology of cancer tumors.

Cockroaches also have their own parasites, which do not play a role in human pathology. Cockroaches should not be tolerated in human dwellings. To combat them, chemical substances are used - sodium fluoride per se or mixed with half flour, with which the habitats of cockroaches are dusted. Intestinal poisons for cockroaches are: borax with sugar, salicylic acid (2 parts with 1 part borax and sugar), boric acid, the saturated solution of which is used to moisten bread for bait. Of the gas methods for combating cockroaches, fumigation with sulfur dioxide is used. 'Constructive' methods of protecting premises from cockroaches are of great importance: smooth plastering of walls and whitewashing them, tight sealing of floors and baseboards, such arrangement of shelves in kitchens that cockroaches cannot hide in them, etc. For prevention purposes, it is necessary to keep housing and kitchens in exemplary cleanliness, hide products in tightly closed containers, not leave crumbs and other food residues, unwashed dishes, etc. on tables and floors.

Black cockroaches have been used internally in folk medicine as a diuretic for dropsy. The diuretic effect of preparations from black cockroaches was confirmed in the clinic of S.P. Botkin. Used for edema based on heart and kidney diseases internally in powders of 0.06-0.3-0.6 several times a day, in the form of infusions of 10.0 in 120.0 by the tablespoon or in the form of mixtures of 20-40 drops per dose. Lig.: Pavlovsky E., Insects and infectious diseases of man, M., 1928; Pavlovsky B. and Stein A., Experimental study of the effect of the bite of the black cockroach (Periplaneta orientalis) on human skin, Parazitol. sborn. zool. inst. Akad. Nauk USSR, vol. 2, L., 1931; Tiumpel R., Orthoptera and Neuroptera of the Russian Empire and neighboring countries, SPB, 1905; Marlatt C, Cockroaches, Farmer's Bull., 1921, No. 658; Spinelli A. u. Reitano U., Ricerche sulle blatte, quali agenti di diffusione dei germi della colera, della febbre tifoide e della dissenteria bacillare, Ann. d'igiene, v. XLII, No. 11, 1932; Wille J., Biologie und Bekampfung der deutschen Schabe (Phyllodromia germanica H.), Monogr. f. ang. Entomologie, 1920, No. 5. See also lit. to the article Disinsection.