Help! Maggots all round garden but can't pin point where from?

[Sophie1029734]

Hi everyone.
I was sat on the back door step on my phone for some fresh air. I feel a tickle on my leg, its a maggot crawling up my leg!!! I feel ill because maggots and slugs are my worst thing, I don't even care i disinfected my leg.

I grab some hot water and bleach and kill the two I see. Next min there's another 3. I put my shoes on, grab my light and a lots of hot eater bleach and an insect killer spray. As I walk through the garden I see more and more!! They seem to be coming from the direction of where the bin is yet there is no maggot in, on or next to the bin apart from 1.theres nothing in the food bin. I check the plastics that I threw on the floor, one had some cream left but there's nothing there. Plus they aren't coming from that direction. We don't grow vegetables either. Im so confused, disgusted. I feel my skin crawling. Where are they coming from 😭😭😭

Don't know where they are coming from but don't trust bleach to kill the fuckers. It hardly seems to affect them. Is there something dead in the bushes?

Dead body under the bin? You're not near a canal/river are you? We once had loads that was a fisherman slinging his mates away at the end of the day and he used the catapult thing they have to get rid, but they came over our fence instead of into the water.

My minds blown i just can't understand where they are conning from. Im gonna go take a shower, head to bed and see what awaits me tommorow.

Should be OK by the morning anyway as the birds will get anything that's lurking.

Do you have a catbowl outside with wet food in it?

We have no pets. Next door has 2 dogs, could they be coming from her garden?

You either have some festering food that's fallen out of the bin or a dead animal somewhere nearby - hedgehog would be my best cos they're so hard to spot even when alive but when dead they soon fester and turn into a maggot festivals. Rank though it is you're gonna need to literally follow the trail with a good torch and see which of the two it is.

Just move the bin or anything directly in the path, shine the torch and you'll see where they're coming from.

My friend had maggots on her driveway cos the next door neighbour had washed her infested bin. The bleach she then poured on her driveway caused the maggots to climb the fence to escape, plopping onto my friends drive...

Maggots stay on their food source (which could have been in your bin, or a dead animal in the garden) while they are growing. They eat and eat. However, once full grown, they leave their food source and look for somewhere quiet and dark to pupate (like a caterpillar does). Eventually it will hatch out into a fly.

So if the maggots are on the move, they will soon disappear - either because they've pupated or (more likely) because the birds have eaten them up for you. You probably wont see any tomorrow.

Been out again and there was on at the top of the bin. There's nothing inside but there was just 1, I have killed 2 beside the bin. But there's no more in that area. Could a fly lay eggs on top of the bin?

@WaltzingToWalsingham

Maggots stay on their food source (which could have been in your bin, or a dead animal in the garden) while they are growing. They eat and eat. However, once full grown, they leave their food source and look for somewhere quiet and dark to pupate (like a caterpillar does). Eventually it will hatch out into a fly.

So if the maggots are on the move, they will soon disappear - either because they've pupated or (more likely) because the birds have eaten them up for you. You probably wont see any tomorrow.

That was reay helpful, could they be layed a while ago?

Are you sure they are maggots and not little caterpillars. There are some caterpillars that abseil down off trees all of a sudden in a mass event and are similar in appearance to maggots. Any trees in your garden with some hanging by a silk thread?

Think they are maggots

There's a lot more but I'm not up for going out again 😆

It's possible that the eggs were laid on top of the bin, if meat juice had spilt on the lid from packaging, but usually the eggs are laid on actual food, and in a moist environment. Eggs laid on an actual lid would soon either dry out or, if they hatched, they'd run out of good. So I think they've come from somewhere else. Is there anything above the bins? Eg tree branches? I'm wondering if something died in the tree, and the maggots are dropping onto the bin from there, perhaps...

And yes, the eggs would have been laid days ago. Their speed of development depends on the temperature and moisture around them. If it's been hot where you are, they were probably laid a few days ago. If it's been cooler, they might have been laid a week or so ago.

If they're outside I wouldn't worry, although be aware they can climb. They will be eaten or hatch and fly off in a few days.