I have done something with disgusting consequences! Help!

[ODearMe]

Hi all

You will be grossed out by this but I need your help. A friend gave me a big bag of plums and most of them were mouldy so I put them in the compost bin WITHOUT putting them in compost bags . This was 2 days ago...
I opened the bin today and there are zillion flies in there and I am sure maggots. I am so freaked out, I cannot bear to go near it.

I know you will all be thinking - what did you expect, but the damage is done now.

Bin collection in another 2 days time - wwyd? Wait for then and hope the plum sludge gets taken away, or brave the flies and maggots to do whatever with it.

Help!!!

Got to a pet shop and buy a bag of sawdust (used for bedding). If you can bear the smell mix it in and then put a good layer over the whole of the top. If you can't bear the smell just put a thick layer over the top.

If it's plums, there probably won't be any maggots and it probably will just be full of fruit flies.

I'd take the whole bin out into the back garden, pour boiling water in first, then shovel in some soil. Mix it around (soil will deaden the smell as well) and tip it out onto the compost heap (assuming you actually have one!)

Thank you all so much for great advice!

I don't know about your bin men but ours won't empty the compost bins if there is loose food. It has to be bagged.

Oh NO! But what if it has turned to sludge?!

have you got a garden?

put in on the compost heap, or dig a hole and put it in, or scatter it and once the wasps have had their fill, it will rot away into the ground and the worms will have it. If you put it on the ground and shovel soil or compost on top, it will rot without wasps.

if you do this early in the morning when it's cold, the insects will be half-asleep.

Leave them, they'll compost when the rubbish reaches the depo.

Personally I believe it's everyone's public duty to ensure their food bins are as mouldy and gross as possible.

Hopefully the bin men will refuse to empty them and we can go back to just stuffing it nicely in black bags.

I'm a biologist, I'm pretty good with yuck, but I hate food bins.