Cockroaches

Hi, We are moving out of a place with a massive cockroach infestation. How do we safely clean kitchen gadgets, especially larger ones (e.g. microwave, instant pot, that sort of stuff) to ensure we don’t take any unintended passengers with us to the new place, please? The roaches like to hide in dark places, so are pretty likely to be in the internal parts of the device where we can’t easily look. Thank you so much! North York

Weather may be your friend here – if you have a place where it would be safe to leave your appliances outdoors or in an unheated room in freezing temperatures, you may be able to kill any roaches present. German cockroaches cannot tolerate exposure to temperatures colder than 14 F (-10 C) for more than an hour, or 10 hours at temperatures below 45 F (7 C). If you feel you must clean, use a mild detergent in warm water to clean all surfaces, but be sure to read the appliance manuals for any precautions. Also, if you do not need to move immediately, you could try setting out a few roach bait stations or ‘roach motels’ to see if you detect any activity.