How to Treat a Cockroach Bite at Home

What are the ways to treat a cockroach bite?

• Wash with soap and water
• Apply ice
• Put lemon juice
• Buy anti-septic
• Purchase over-the-counter medicine

Cockroach bites are common in the Philippines. If you find them lying about your house and you don’t have any knowledge of how to treat a cockroach bite at home, you don’t have to panic because there are simple remedies that you can practice in the comfort of your own home.

When dealing with pests and insects, one of the things people actively try to avoid is getting bit by any of them. The danger with getting bit by an insect you might not be familiar with is not knowing how to treat the bite or the affected area. You can also potentially inflame the bite if you don’t conduct the necessary research on the proper home remedy.

Continue reading to learn more about the safest ways you can treat a cockroach bite with readily available materials.

Wash with soap and water

Cockroaches are just some of the most common pests that you can find in your home. These bugs breed in places that lack hygienic care and attention. Finding one in your kitchen, for example, can lead you to immediately get a pesticide and target this pest.

Aside from being a headache to deal with, cockroaches can also potentially bite you. Cases like these are not uncommon. If you know someone who has been bitten in the eye by a cockroach, then you would understand how uncomfortable it is for that person to have to deal with a swollen eye.

One way by which you can immediately treat cockroach bites is through rinsing the affected area with soap and clean water. Because cockroaches feed on almost anything, a bite, if left untreated, can become infected and may cause further discomfort. Rinsing the bite with soap and water can immediately sanitize the area.

Apply ice

Insect bites, in general, are uncomfortable, which may lead some to involuntary actions such as scratching them. Scratching is a way to relieve the irritating sensation of the bite. However, the danger of scratching is that there is a tendency to not stop once you begin it. Scratching too aggressively, for example, can cause the insect bite to further reopen and infect the surface of the skin.

While applying ice does not necessarily heal a cockroach bite, in this case, it helps cool the affected part of your skin. If you don’t own a cold compress, simply put several ice cubes inside a plastic bag and cover it with a small face towel. After which, place it on the area of the bite. You might need to repeat this several times during the day, but the coldness of the ice helps to relieve the itching sensation.

Put lemon juice

Citrus fruits are also a good way for you to treat cockroach bites. Since lemon is a typically uncommon fruit in a Filipino household, fresh calamansi juice will also suffice.

Simply slice the fruit in half, then squeeze out all its juices inside a container. After which, you can use a cotton bud or you can dampen a small cloth with the mixture and apply it to the affected area.

The purpose of the citrus juice is to reduce your likelihood of scratching the bite and potentially reopening the wound. Lemon, or calamansi juice, is also an effective method of reducing the swelling of the cockroach bite.

Buy antiseptic

As with some of the most common insect bites, the first instinct would be to clean the wound. If ethyl alcohol proves to be too strong and painful for your skin, another alternative is hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide is typically used to get rid of debris which may be caught in open wounds. In the case of cockroach bites, hydrogen peroxide can help in killing some of the bacteria which the cockroach has carried with its bite.

Purchase over-the-counter medicine

In some instances, simple home remedies are just not enough for you to treat a cockroach bite. If the swelling has not gone down after several hours despite you cleaning the wound, you should instead resort to buying readily-available medicine at your local pharmacy.

Asking your pharmacist is also another way for you to find out about the most effective ways of dealing with a cockroach bite. They would be able to recommend potent medicine which can act on the inflammation much faster.

Key Takeaway

Not knowing how to treat a cockroach bite can potentially be harmful to your health, especially since these pests carry around with them all sorts of bacteria. Fortunately for you, there are simple home remedies you can perform to help you relieve the redness and swelling of the bite.

The guide above has hopefully provided you with some effective home treatments you can do at home in the event you encounter yourself in this situation. These treatments can be done in combination with each other, helping you ease the pain of the wound faster.