I’ve left a bin….

[Lassh]

In the house for 9 days, partially uncovered and full of chicken, milk cartons, bits of cooked salmon, etc.

What will I find when I return tonight?! Bit worried but didn’t expect to be away this long!

Unlikely to be anything worse than a bit of a stink in a week. Even if a fly has laid eggs it takes between 8-20 hours for them to hatch and become maggots which then moult three times, each moulting taking between 3 days in warm conditions to 20 days in cooler settings. The maggot then enters the pupal stage which takes them between 4-6 days in warm conditions to become an adult fly, so after a week it’s highly unlikely that there’ll be a house full of flies.
Hopefully there’s a lid on the bin, carry it outside and shove it in your big bins, then give your house a bit of a going over with some disinfectant and an air freshener.

Anyone who says your house will be full of maggots or flies inside a week simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about

Awesome detail there, MostlyNormal!

I've had maggots in my "big bin" in the past. It gets emptied once a fortnight. It doesn't take long for them to get going

Depends if I fly had laid its eggs in there prior to OP leaving it. I've had maggots in an outside bin that was left for a week.

Anyone who says your house will be full of maggots or flies inside a week simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about

Its incredibly likely that the flies had already laid eggs in the bin before the OP left the house especially if it was routinely left uncovered. I really hope then only thing waiting for her was a horrid smell but it seems very unlikely.

I have never had maggots and we have loads of flies in our house (handy entertainment/snacks for the cats) Our kitchen bin is too big for the rubbish we have so a bag usually is on the go for almost 2 weeks

A colleague went away for a week and didn't empty the bin they came home to find maggots absolutely everywhere. Even outside the house. Brace yourself.

I'm also very wary of those one eyed snake thingies, and the thing they are attached to

I think we are speaking of different one eyed snakes but I certainly wouldn't want touch one of those, after a week in a bin, either.

What did you come home to OP??

CSI will be looking for a body due to all the flies.
.

Ooooh, good luck. If there were any flies in the house, they will have likely laid eggs in and on the bin, so you may well find maggots. I once had to deal with a maggot festival in my wheelie bin during a very hot spell, where the bin lid had been slightly open and given the flies access. It was a pain in the arse sorting it out but I’m a lot less squeamish about maggots now that I’ve spent time dealing with them close up.

@donquixotedelamancha

I'm also very wary of those one eyed snake thingies, and the thing they are attached to

I think we are speaking of different one eyed snakes but I certainly wouldn't want touch one of those, after a week in a bin, either.

Presumably OP is so horrified by what she found that she ran away screaming and hasn't come back

Came home from a week away once to a load of bluebottles in the window - the source wasn't immediately obvious, I had emptied all the bins etc. We do have a cat, but no carcasses of her kills to be seen. Turns out husband had rinsed a chopping board used for raw meat and some fragments had lodged in the waste pipe. It was grim! There were dead flies all round the drain, so was definitely that. Short lived, though, once we killed them all and cleaned the drain it was sorted.

Hopefully just a smelly bin, drag it outside and open windows and deal with it out there.

I would mentally prepare for the worst - flies, maggots and the smell of death and then any less will be a relief.

Please update us. Thanks

If you've been sick OP get someone to go and deal with this

What a load of shitty replies

I hope you're ok

Go to a pharmacy before you get gone. Rubber gloves, disposable face mask, shower cap. Also, make sure you tuck them in properly, you don’t want any inside your clothes etc). Literally a horror situation.

Before you get home

I would buzz and tell the nurse on duty I wonder if there is something anyone can arrange for you

Are you even going to be fit enough to clean up

tbh if it hasn't been that warm and windows and doors were shut it might just stink xx

Yes, I think my brother's bin had flies in/around already before they left for their week away.

I would buzz and tell the nurse on duty I wonder if there is something anyone can arrange for you

What nurse on duty? Has a post been deleted?

@cultkid

What shitty replies? People have answered completely normally with a bit of humour and exaggeration too.

Also, what on earth are you talking about 'buzz the nurse'

@cultkid

The op hasn’t said they’ve been in hospital!!

🤞 it won’t be too horrendous, OP.

I well remember hearing a strange noise from a neighbour’s oven when going round to feed their cat - they were away for 3 weeks. So I opened it, and about a million bluebottles flew out.🤮. Which was weird, since I couldn’t see that any forgotten meat or fish had been left to rot inside.

No help now, I know, but in this house any bits of fish or chicken, or a chicken carcass after boiling up, go in a bag in the freezer until the night before the bin men come. And no, I don’t have a big freezer, just a bottom half of the fridge job.