Ebola researchers looked for a long time to find the carrier species in Africa. One of those CDC scientists used to post here at FR and she predicted it would be found in fruit bats, which it subsequently was.
Had rats been Ebola carriers that would have been easy to confirm. They’re not. Three species of Pteropodidae fruit bats are where Ebola lives between outbreaks.
Roaches- you’re into wild speculation now. This isn’t an insect borne virus.
Ebola scares people enough without adding imaginary threats to the mix.
Perhaps I wasn't clear, but I was not visualizing insects and rodents as a host animal. I was visualizing urban vermin tracking assorted bodily fluids from one slum apartment to the next. I have (for family reasons) been in the projects several times, and I am used to the smell of all sorts of things that should have gone down the drain but didn't, both from behind closed doors and from the still soggy carpets and the damp yet sticky stairs. Throw in the critters that crawl around, and a deadly virus, and I expect transmission to occur. I don't think it will explode by a factor of 50,000,000 in a year like the Flu does, but I think it could realistically be hard to get rid of.