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Original poster

My Wheelie bin is infested with maggots-arghhhhh!

27 replies

honeybunny · 12/08/2004 18:21

HELP!
I've got a maggot infestation of my wheelie bin, despite having it cleaned last Thursday, and its not being collected til next Thursday. Any sure fire ways of killing them off? I've just poured boiling water over some of them but now my flesh is crawling (not literally)! It stinks too, which doesnt help the whole pg nausea stakes either. Its REVOLTING!

OP posts:
Fio2 · 12/08/2004 18:34

scoop them out and sell them as bait

or just 'ignore' them

whymummy · 12/08/2004 18:37

oh god,maggots,my biggest phobia!! i just can't understand why bins are not emptied more often in the summer after all the money we pay the council,grrr
just throw some more hot water with bleach

Fio2 · 12/08/2004 18:39

whymummy they want to collections once a fortnight here

Twiglett · 12/08/2004 18:42

message withdrawn

whymummy · 12/08/2004 18:42

oh no fio,that's not on,is not just maggots, it attracts rats as well,eeeurgh!!

aloha · 12/08/2004 19:17

It's this damn hot weather. It's getting like the bloody rainforest. My street reeks of overripe bin, the drains pong, our house is full of fleas and there are plagues of wasps....

Original poster
honeybunny · 12/08/2004 20:31

Fio2.... I can cope with most things but after trying REALLY hard to deal with these I cant stop wriggling.

dh off playing cricket tonight and working a long, long day tmr so unlikely to get any help from him til Sat'day. He'd prob be useless.... he is about most things of a crawly nature. Its me that has to cope with the mice,frogs and birds that the cats bring in.

Now where are my all-in-one waterproofs, rubber gloves, face mask, welly boots...... if I never post again pls come look for me!!

OP posts:
Flip · 12/08/2004 20:33

I'm eating my tea and still had to read this. Just leave the lid off and in a couple of days they'll have turned into flys and disapeared.

whymummy · 12/08/2004 20:34

LOL honeybunnycover your nose and mouth and empty a whole can of fly killer in the bin,close it and run

champs · 12/08/2004 20:43

swap your bin with neighbour!!!
sorry not helping.... I'd go with the face mask and fly spray

Original poster
honeybunny · 12/08/2004 20:48

Champs-not a bad idea as both sets of neighbours are on holiday. Sadly they're all back this w/e so me thinks they'd be a tad suspicious, especially as our road no. is on the side of the offending bin.

Think I'll put off operation maggot til tmr now, afterall it is getting dark........ but I'm NOT chickening out, honest!!

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sportyspice · 12/08/2004 20:50

I can only offer the advice of boiling water!

Flossam · 12/08/2004 21:02

I hope it's not my bin you got . We had two bins appear on our drive after rubbish collection. No numbers on, so no idea which one was ours. I put some rubbish out and found the maggots in one, so I put it the other, and a big glug of bleach in the other. Then a neighbour came round to reclaim his bin , I'd already nearly filled the other 'nice' bin with rubbish, so he took the maggoty one. I felt awful . But I don't know if the bleach worked or not, it was no longer my problem!

tinyganghq · 12/08/2004 21:16

AAARGH - CAN NOT stand them, they make my skin crawl too. We had them in our bin last year and I did the bleach / hot water thing but they're tough little sods and I could not belive they could survive my onslaught.

Dh had to do the honours in the end with some caustic soda. Now, this worked, BUT it is not nice stuff at all. Be careful to follow instructions, don't get it on your skin (obviously) and keep all little ones/pets well away. Think they sell it in hardwear type shops. I still find myself staring in the bin in morbid fascination when it's been emptied in case they decide to come back - especially when it's hot weather.

PamT · 12/08/2004 22:10

We've been having a problem with our neighbour's stinking bin as it is kept in the back garden next to ours, which doesn't smell half as bad. The hot weather has made it so much worse and you really don't want to be outside when the lid is opened. We do a mutual taking and returning of the bins thing, so as soon as they had been emptied this morning I ran out with the hosepipe and disinfectant to give both the bins a wash out, did ours fine (so that it didn't look like I was just doing his), then I came to his, lifted the lid and squirted only to find that it was still half full - he'd put a load of packing materials on top of some stinky kitchen/cat waste and it hadn't dropped out - I then had to drag the packing stuff out (but didn't dare touch the other stuff, squirted as much water in as I dared and threw some disinfectant in, then stuffed the smelly packing stuff back in.

DH won't touch dirty so it was down to me, but at least both bins smell a bit more fragrant now. I'd only just got out of the shower but felt like going into a decontamination unit after that experience. I just hope the bin men don't stand too close next week when the bins go upside down, there'll be a few litres of water and disinfectant come sloshing out again.

Linnet · 12/08/2004 23:11

Not an immediate help but do you have a wheelie bin cleaning company in your area?

We have one in our area they come round every 2 weeks and clean out the wheelie bin with disinfectant and put in a big wheelie liner, quite reasonable as well.

Until you can find out, if you want to go down that road of course, I'd go with the bleach.

peachypie · 12/08/2004 23:17

do you know anyone with gangrine you could give them too???? apparently maggots love that and its the only thing they are useful for if not id go for the bleach!!

Original poster
honeybunny · 13/08/2004 15:44

My bins are cleaned once a month, but dont use the company that provides bin liners.... I'm afraid we're a bit more environmentally friendly. Havent summoned the effort required to go and check them out today.... feeling shattered in a pg way after ds2 woke us up x4 last night.

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hannahken180 · 13/08/2004 15:54

The problem is the stuff you are putting in your bin.

Go all enviromental and get yourself a compost bin so not wasting valuable landfill sites with your food waste.

We put foodstuffs, peelings etc, cardboard, tissues paper etc. in ours and have very little real rubbish and it is certainly not attractive stuff for maggots.

The compost bin gets full of flies (and maybe even maggots although I haven't seen any!) but they all die in the end and rot down like eveything else.

Serves you right for not beeing green

Bunglie · 13/08/2004 16:06

Know any fishermen?
They pay for maggots?

Sorry not much help, I hate the things Ahg!

iota · 13/08/2004 16:22

hannahken, I was under the impression that you can't compost waste meat - am I wrong?

It's waste meat that seems to attract the most flies and maggots in our house - usually leftover cat food - I have to clear it away really quickly in the hot weather.

hmb · 13/08/2004 16:28

You shouldn't try to compost meat or fish as it can attract rats! Yummy, maggots and rats!

Original poster
honeybunny · 13/08/2004 16:55

Actually here in Kent we have a compost collection every fortnight and I do compost all of my kitchen/garden waste. And yes, paper, cardboard, tins, glass bottles etc. We never put cooked food nor meat products in our compost as it does attract rats, and isnt allowed in our compost bins anyway. Besides it wouldnt be v organic.
Not sure what attracted this particular infestation other than heat and an increased no. of flies around generally. But its certainly nothing to do with my lack of being green, thanks v much!!

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Original poster
honeybunny · 13/08/2004 16:57

Oh and my bin cleaning company uses only environmentally friendly cleaning agents, which is why we chose them, and hence no plastic wheelie bin liners.

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Bibiboo · 13/08/2004 20:32

We used the casutic soda option for our smelly, maggotty bin a few months ago - it's cheap and effective, but nasty, nasty stuff so proceed with caution. Good luck.