Maggots … where do they come from

Mudball

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Putting the bins out tonight. It has been hot as hell over the past few days. Opened the food bins and it has maggots in it. Now the food bins are mostly a closed ecosystem. The lid is fixed 24x7. They only have cooked and uncooked food from the kitchen.

So unless the maggot egg/larve are present in everyday food… I have no clue how these maggots get in there.

Makes me wonder
 

Don Barzini

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Combination of a tiny hole/crack somewhere in your bin that you’re not aware of and flies zipping inside without you seeing them when you open the lid.

Disgusting things. Maggots in the bin is almost an inevitability in this weather. I’m always sprinkling the wheelie bin with those freshening granules and spraying fly killer in and around it. Still get the bloody maggots though.
 

jim8flog

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The eggs may well be on the food before you put it in the bin. It only takes a few seconds for a fly to land on the food and lay eggs and that could just be the time is is sitting on a plate waiting to be swept in to the bin.
 

Orikoru

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We've had this problem before - one year our bin lid was broken, so the clasp would fail about a minute after you put it down, the lid popping up without you realising so flies got in easily. But even now we've sorted that, I still open the bin sometimes and fly flies out - they must be squeezing themselves in through the tiny gap in the rim. Rather annoying, but I've not seen any maggots this year yet.

Couple of years back we had an incident where literally hundreds of them starting piling out of the top of the outside wheelie bin at the front of the house, it was like something out of a horror movie. About 25 kettles worth of boiling water to kill them all, they were all over the driveway. Still have nightmares. :oops:

We don't use a food waste bin, but I seem to recall that my parents, who do have one, are advised to wrap all the food waste in newspaper before placing it in the bin, so preventing maggots is possibly the reason for that.
 

Jamesbrown

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Never had any in mine, but when I lived at my parents the neighbour used to keep her bin front of house (absolute faux pas that) and it was teeming with the things. She then proceeded to wash her bin out on the pavement and left them wriggling for all and sundry to see. Vile.
 

Bunkermagnet

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Never had any in mine, but when I lived at my parents the neighbour used to keep her bin front of house (absolute faux pas that) and it was teeming with the things. She then proceeded to wash her bin out on the pavement and left them wriggling for all and sundry to see. Vile.
But it provides food for the birds:)
 

CliveW

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Putting the bins out tonight. It has been hot as hell over the past few days. Opened the food bins and it has maggots in it. Now the food bins are mostly a closed ecosystem. The lid is fixed 24x7. They only have cooked and uncooked food from the kitchen.

So unless the maggot egg/larve are present in everyday food… I have no clue how these maggots get in there.

Makes me wonder

Take up fishing???
 

adam6177

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I haven't had the issue this year so far (touch wood)... But last year I had it for 3-4 bin collections in a row.

I too spent ages looking for gaps at the top of the bin and putting fly spray around it thinking that was the source, but in the end we came to conclusion that it was the kitchen bin that was the culprit.

The only thing we found that did help was spraying fly spray around the inside of the black bin and then immediately sprinkling raid powder so it stuck to the sides.... That lasted for weeks and didn't have the issue occur again.
 
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