Fridge with 'roaches, please help!

[kawasakirider]

Hey everyone, I've just touched down in qld and arrived home to find my bar fridge invaded by roaches and maggots. It's my fault, before I left I turned all the power off to save money and never thought anything of it -.- I'm an idiot,'haha.

I have put the fridge outside but want to know how I can combat them so I don't end up with them coming back. I'm not sure about Mortein because it is toxic and might stay in the system, as it's a frost free fridge (which is why I'm also worried about the filthy buggers reappearing).

Anyone got any ideas? I'm in the car at the moment and I am on my way to get some stuff to knock them on the head, just not sure how to approach it, being a fridge and all...


Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[JungleManSam]

Bug Bomb! I would have thought mortein, give it a really good spray out, then just give the fridge a good wash with the hose and some soap.

 

[Spider178]

S@#t, I hope the beer is ok!!!

 

[kawasakirider]

I'm pretty angry at the moment, my room mate has just come home and I've apologised to her for leaking pools of stagnant water with maggots in them all through the house and explained the situation...

She looks at me, puts her hand to her mouth and says "omg I'm so sorry, I did that before I left for Xmas. I went in there to drop off some mail and decided to turn the powerpoints off since no one would be there"

Like *** mate? You could have slipped the mail under the door, but decide to enter their room without permission and touch stuff rendering a fridge pretty much ruined, not to mention the food.....

I had $30 worth of rats and other food in there that won't be reimbursed and the fridge was bought brand new a few months ago. She offered to replace the fridge and she is looking at $50 used ones.

Pretty angry at the moment.... Spider, I'm pretty sure there was a 6 pack of Stella Artois in there, can't open it without gagging to see -.-

 

[Pazzy]

soapy water kills roaches. coz they breath through there skin the soap put a thin membrane on them and they cant breath and die.

 

[kawasakirider]

Thanks mate, if she wants to get in there and scrub it I'll let her know

 

[Fantazmic]

Its gross I know but once you scrub it out they wont come back

Use warm soapy water to scrub it out....something that will really help with the smell in the fridge is a product called Vanilla Fridge Wipe...I use it on everything and it smells divine and it will get rid of the smell in the fridge from the rotting food......you can find it in the cleaning products isle I know Coles definintely has it

Remember work from the top down and if you have to get a toothbrush to scrub out all the corners......If you can possibly hose it out this will help also

it is really awful I know but you dont have to lose your fridge......it will be ok...you are just going to have to be strong and clean it !!


I promise if you get the fridge spotless they wont come back....remember the seals around the door you will need to scrub them out really thoroughly too

 

[timantula]

fresh lemon juice will kill the odour..

 

[Saxon_Aus]

when you come to clean it out put vicks under your nose, we use it at work when we have to attend some pretty feral calls and it covers the smell of everything!

 

[Jen]

Someone where i used to work left a cord in between the freezer seals over the weekend - this was for the freezer we kept the culled mice in for the week before they were incinerated on tuesdays - so a full weeks worth, probably close to 2 thousand or so. I was the only one willing to clean it out (the lab girls actually bailed from the facility as the smell got to them all the way at the other end of the building). It was really pretty rank, but the freezer cleaned up perfectly. I used virkon and that took care of most of the smell as well as the er, stuck on bits.... A wipe with that vanilla fridge stuff took care of the rest of the smell, just make sure you clean every crevice!

 

[kawasakirider]

What really annoys me is that she had the audacity to come into my room that had the door shut and start flicking switches. It's a bit hard to miss a bar fridge, use some common sense!

I seriously thought I was going mad, I couldn't believe that I'd done something so stupid. Believing that I was the one who did it was easier than thinking my room mate decided to waltz into my room and touch my stuff, though.

She's not willing to clean it herself, so I guess I'll do it and save her the $150 of buying a new fridge. She's buying me some more rats and sticky date pudding, though -.-

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Someone where i used to work left a cord in between the freezer seals over the weekend - this was for the freezer we kept the culled mice in for the week before they were incinerated on tuesdays - so a full weeks worth, probably close to 2 thousand or so. I was the only one willing to clean it out (the lab girls actually bailed from the facility as the smell got to them all the way at the other end of the building). It was really pretty rank, but the freezer cleaned up perfectly. I used virkon and that took care of most of the smell as well as the er, stuck on bits.... A wipe with that vanilla fridge stuff took care of the rest of the smell, just make sure you clean every crevice!

Surely 2000 rats that were all frozen wouldn't have defrosted and decomposed to the point that they were green and black mush in 2 days? This stuff was left in there for a whole month, the smell is just terrible, haha.

 

[Fantazmic]

Kawasakirider what doesnt kill you will make you stronger....

Ive had things go off in the fridge before....and make a terrible mess....admittedly not maggoty rats but some pretty feral things....and I just had to get in there and clean it because we didnt have the money to replace our fridge. And I did it with a young baby and toddler helping....so things could be more complicated !

Its good for you....and one day when you are older and have kids and a home and something like this happens again you will know exactly what to do....and your life partner will think you are pretty special if you say....

No worries....I can clean this out......Ive done worse than this and still survived !!!!!!

PS Most important thing to remember apart from getting into all the crevaces is .....work inside out and top down.....if you remember that you will get the best and easiest result.

PPS. Its a shame your housemate isnt rectifying her mistake....some people are not able to be as strong as they should be and this shows you the sort of person she is. However if she buys the cleaning fluid and materials you need to clean the fridge and replaces the rats thats probably going half way there. Maybe a learning curve for you for future and I know you shouldnt have to do this....but is to put a sign above the power point saying "Fridge power do not turn off !!' You may not always live in the house where you are now so its something to put in your back pocket and take with you !!

Elizabeth

 

[Chris1]

ewwwwwwwwwww,...if she doesnt wanna replace the fridge she should be the one to scrub it!!
and you should film it and post it on youtube,...gag reflexes and all, lol,....(just kidding)

could be worse, at least it wasnt heat lights and stuff for ur critters, dead reptiles would be way worse than an icky fridge!!!!!

 

[kawasakirider]

Kawasakirider what doesnt kill you will make you stronger....

Ive had things go off in the fridge before....and make a terrible mess....admittedly not maggoty rats but some pretty feral things....and I just had to get in there and clean it because we didnt have the money to replace our fridge. And I did it with a young baby and toddler helping....so things could be more complicated !

Its good for you....and one day when you are older and have kids and a home and something like this happens again you will know exactly what to do....and your life partner will think you are pretty special if you say....

No worries....I can clean this out......Ive done worse than this and still survived !!!!!!

PS Most important thing to remember apart from getting into all the crevaces is .....work inside out and top down.....if you remember that you will get the best and easiest result.

PPS. Its a shame your housemate isnt rectifying her mistake....some people are not able to be as strong as they should be and this shows you the sort of person she is. However if she buys the cleaning fluid and materials you need to clean the fridge and replaces the rats thats probably going half way there. Maybe a learning curve for you for future and I know you shouldnt have to do this....but is to put a sign above the power point saying "Fridge power do not turn off !!' You may not always live in the house where you are now so its something to put in your back pocket and take with you !!

Elizabeth

Thanks for trying to inspire me, if you read my first post I had no dramas cleaning it when I thought it was my own mistake. It's not bad enough that I couldn't do it, it's the point that I shouldn't have to belt up and rectify someone else's mistake. Believe me, if the snakes were hurt I wouldn't be as cool, calm and collected as I am now

I know I'm coming across rudely, not my intention though!

 

[PythonLegs]

I don't do maggots. I'd be getting a new bar fridge...gak.

 

[kawasakirider]

I don't do maggots. I'd be getting a new bar fridge...gak.

The fridge smells like a mix of ethanol, ammonia, the tip, dead road kill etc. The whole inside of it is brown and black, cream and mayo containers have filled up with gas and popped, sticky date pudding is everywhere, decomposed vegetables etc! I opened the door about 3cm for less than a second (outside in the open air mind you) and my room mate who was about 20 feet away started gagging at the smell, it's insane haha.

 

[PythonLegs]

Oh god...my hangover loved reading that.

 

[kawasakirider]

Haha, I have a pretty strong stomach, it's more the inconvenience of it all, lol.

 

[JungleManSam]

did you manange to get it clean??

 

[kawasakirider]

Haven't tried yet. It's been there for a month, it's not going to get any worse lol.

Might turn it into an incubator??