I live in a dorm, and I’ve seen roaches in my room and in the bathroom that I share with my suite mates. The roaches in my room were on my desk eating potato chip crumbs, and they were on my floor were eating peanuts. (Yes, I know, I should clean.) Question: should I assume roaches have been in my opened boxes of cereal? My two boxes of cereal contain sugar and smell sweet, and I’m wondering if that’s something that would attract roaches. I don’t see any signs that roaches have been in my cereal, but I’m wondering if I should just toss both boxes to be safe.
ETA: my cereal is on an elevated bookshelf if that matters.
I would assume the roaches have been in the cereal. Elevated bookshelves aren’t going to slow down an insect that can walk upside down on ceilings.
Put your cereal in something like a Tupperware bowl that can be sealed. Actually put all food in opened packages in such containers or lock them in the fridge.
Also clean up the place and bug bomb it or put out roach traps. One problem with dorms is that you can clean up your room, but the roaches are living elsewhere in the building.
It’s a dorm. You and your roommates need to clean your filthy rooms, and report the problem to management. They may have to treat the whole building. Keep your dry goods in storage containers. And clean up after yourselves. Assume the roaches have been everywhere.
My roommate refuses to throw away his box of Honey Nut Cheerios, and he says that he doesn’t care if roaches have been in them. He plans on eating them. Is he likely to get sick?
Was the plastic bag inside the box of cereal left open, or was it rolled down tightly? If open, chances are it has been visited. And considering the state of the room, he’s not going to get any sicker than if he uses a spoon that the roaches walked across.
I don’t know about his cereal, but both my bags were left opened. Also, we both wash our spoons, so I don’t have a problem keeping them. But I can’t really wash my cereal. Though, if my roommate doesn’t get sick, I may eat mine too.
Roaches eating your cereals or shiting in your cereals is very unlikely to make you or your roomate sick. Tons of people have roaches in their place without being sick while the insects probably roam all over their food, dishes and cutlery . AFAIK (not a doctor) the most common adverse health effect is allergy, even though spread of disease is an actual possibility, if remote.
Personnally, I would assume that roaches have been into my food. I happen to have roaches in the apartment I moved to, and since they’re living in the building, eliminating them is only a temporary fix (by the way I didn’t have much success with bombs and traps. I use a long acting paste sold in syringes, which has been by far the most efficient method. It’s the second time I’m in an apartment with a roach problem). As soon as I see one, I assume there are at least twenty around and besides launching a new eradication program I don’t let any food accessible (and roaches are very good at accessing food). Not because I fear being sick but because the idea that roaches have been shiting in my food disgusts me.
I doubt that cleaning helps much, by the way. Even in a neat apartment, there’s certainly enough small pieces of food lying around to feed insects.
