These "vectors" have been shown to carry a variety of disease-causing organisms. Some of these organisms are the cause of Salmonellosis, Shigellosis, Leptrospirosis, and a variety of other food-borne illnesses. The problem with rodent bait in a food facility is that rodents may carry the poisonous bait in their mouths and drop the bait throughout the facility, contaminating food, food contact surfaces, and food related items.

Any insect that feeds on blood has the potential of transmitting disease organisms from human to human. Mosquitoes are highly developed blood-sucking insects and are the most formidable transmitters of disease in the animal kingdom. Mosquito-borne diseases are caused by human parasites that have a stage in their life cycle that enters the blood stream. The female mosquito picks up the blood stage of the parasite when she imbibes blood to develop her eggs.

Yes, moles rarely but sometimes can be carriers of rabies. Rabies, a virus, progressively paralyzes and can kill any mammal, including humans. Rabies is generally contracted through contact with an infected mole through biting. Though humans should avoid contact with any mole, if a mole seems especially fearless around humans, it could be infected. Call United Wildlife mole control immediately for professional mole removal.

We test freshly killed rodents for diseases but once they are dead, their blood becomes unusable in minutes.

Glesne, Cockroaches are fast enough. They have giant fibers in their ventral nerve cord that transmit the sensory info from their cerci, which sense air currents, directly to their thoracic ganglia which control their leg muscles. This is a reflex circuit which does not need any decision by the cockroach brain. It is fast enough to detect the air wave in front of a predator and allows the cockroach to scuttle away, avoiding capture.

Cockroaches are omnivores, like us. For the most part they will eat anything organic. Mostly they eat dead or immobile things. As indicated elesewhere in the FAQ, they rarely bite a human but might nibble on a sore in the middle of the night when an animal is sleeping. They will eat the glue off the back of postage stamps and the glue bindings off the backs of books, traditional glue being derived from animal protein.

Feral goats carry many parasites such as cestodes, nematodes and protozoans. The degree of cross-infection between feral goats and stock is not known but thought to be fairly low except in well-watered pastures where stocking rates are high. However, feral goats are usually not common in these areas. Feral goats can also carry a wide range of bacterial and viral diseases such as the bacterium that cause melioidosis.

Geese do carry diseases, including swimmer’s itch, histoplasmosis, toxoplasmosis, and giardia. These goose illnesses are spread by contact with goose poop, nest materials and dead geese. When geese live in your pond, swimming pool or nearby lake, parasites that live on the geese will infest the water and climb aboard swimmers, giving them swimmer’s itch. The parasite larvae crawl onto the skin and burrow under it, which leads to a very severe, itchy red rash.

Wild armadillos have been known to be infected with the bacterium that causes leprosy (Hansen's disease). The only cases of transmission from armadillos to humans have occurred in rare incidents in which people ate undercooked armadillo meat.

The main disease problem in foxes is Mange, this cannot be transmitted to humans or cats. In theory fox mange could be caught by dog, but in practice it doesn't. The UK has been completely rabies free for many years and there are well prepared contingency plans for deal with any possible outbreak.

I think for good reason, based on ethical intuition, that we are more impressed by the kind-hearted soul who nets the flies to let them out of the house alive versus the person hunting them down for certain chemical death with a bottle raid. Even if our great White Suburban hunter of houseflies uses a fly-swatter for ecological reasons, the more admirable course pertains to the person who uses a butterfly net to simply capture the fly for relocation outside.

Liz, The feet of insects including cockroaches are made up of a brush like pile which reacts with a surface like myriad weak suction cups. The weak forces involve adding together thousands of such individual adhering pillus ends and result in a strong enough force to suspend the body of a fly, a roach or even larger non-insectal critters such as lizards. To step the cockroach must remove the pilli individually in a wave, like ripping off some cellophane or an adhesive bandage.

Cockroaches (and most other insects) have two light receptors, one sensitive in the ultraviolet range and one in the green range. Many insects also have a third light receptor peaking in the blue. Most pest cockroaches are not attracted to light. They are active at night and if anything they might avoid light. However, if you have a patio that is lit you might be asking what type of light should you have in your patio lighting scheme.

Laurie, There is a pest cockroach, Periplaneta australasiae, which is common outdoors in the southern USA. It is commonly called the Australian cockroach. It is found worldwide as a pest and also called the greenhouse cockroach because of its predilection for establishing itself as a pest in the warmth of greenhouses at all latitudes. It is also found in western Australia. I am not sure of the etymology of the common name, 'Australian cockroach'.

http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/rolleston/plate_viii.html ... This is an illustration by GEORGE ROLLESTON published in 1870. Cockroaches shred food with their mouthparts and then swallow it using their salivary glands (e) and salivary reservoir (f) to moisten their food before it enters their crop (d).

Cockroaches, like all insects, breathe through a system of tubes called tracheae, a word similar to the name of the tube leading to our lungs. The tracheae of insects are attached to the spiracles which are small valved openings on the side of each body segment, excluding the head. Thus the cockroach can breathe without its head! The valves open when the CO2 level in the insect rises to an unacceptable level; then the CO2 diffuses out of the tracheae to the outside and fresh oxygen diffuses in.

First, few cockroaches die on their backs in the wild. Natural death of cockroaches probably occurs in the stomach of a bird, bat or other small animal. Second, Cockroaches are not used to living on a polished marble or vinyl floor. They are more used to a ruguous living plane including leaves and sticks and other vegetable debris.

I have been told that cockroaches are more resistant to radiation and in a world nuclear war, only the cockroaches would survive. But I have not seen any publication that discusses it with any credibility. I can give only an opinion of my own. I have irradiated cockroaches and constructed killing curves for them using gamma irradiation.