Why are cockroaches bad? Do they carry disease?
Cockroaches are not a necessary part of any disease cycle the way that mosquitoes are for malaria or fleas are for bubonic plague. Roaches do carry disease organisms on their bodies because they walk through s ewers and garbage, and they can mechanically transmit these organisms to people. The jury is still out on how serious a problem this is. There is no argument, though about seriousness of allergies caused by cockroaches. The National Institutes of Health estimate that 10 to 15 million Americans suffer from roach-related allergies.
