Cockroaches give off a specific smell due to the way they grow, the way they defaecate and the way they live, nest and feed. The fact that they prefer damp areas makes the smell much worse and cleaning it can be difficult to impossible. They have been inside of the walls and inside the insulation of your walls and basement and likely even your attic. The feces and the desiccated carapace sheddings are likely to smell for years and to make it very hard to sell in the event you want to move out. No one will want to buy a house that smells like cockroaches. They will take one sniff and walk out. So how do you clean such a situation? You will need specific products and if the infestation was very serious then you may need to rent something called a disinfectant fogger which can get inside of the walls and sterilize everything including the insulation, without damaging it. The insulation is where most of the smell is coming from but the inside of large and small appliances are also a problematic place. Trying to clean inside of a microwave vent can be difficult if not impossible and throwing it away is costly. What can you use to clean all of these areas properly without incurring the cost of a disinfectant fogging machine? There are ways and it starts with disinfecting and killing germs. The germs are creating a lot of smell so spraying into wall voids with Lysol spray may help resolve the smell inside of the wall.
To clean large appliances you will want a narrow spray extender, it is just a tube that connects to the end of the spray gun but is very effective in getting into hard-to-reach areas. You can spray inside the back of the over, inside the dishwasher’s mechanics and even running a dish cycle with nothing in it will help protect you from cockroaches ‘ smells and bacteria. The best way to clean the areas after spraying is with hot water followed by a second spray you should leave to dry. When spraying in the motors of large and small appliances make sure to unplug them and leave them unplugged until they are dry.
If this is too much work, and it is a lot of work you can hire a professional technician that can bring in an industrial-grade fogging machine that will fill every area of the house with disinfectant. This will get rid of the smell much faster and with much more ease. The price is not small but the results are very much worth it.
