maggots in wheelie bin

[jay37]

we tie up the top of the bin bag and put it in the wheelie bin,our bin is up an alley its in perminant shade and always cool.the heat could be a facter?

[Cheryl]

I'm really cross about the alternate weekly refuse collections but sadly that's what we have come too - but I have embraced it and try to the best I can.

However ........................

I will not freeze waste - that is not what I have a freezer for - sorry but it makes me furious that the local authority suggest that a way around avoiding flies and maggots is to freeze our rubbish.

I'm a recylcling maniac and was very disappointed that when I took my cardboard etc to my local recylcing point some mindless idiots had seen fit to set fire to the tetra pak bin and a charity clothing bin.

With regards to the maggots ............

To try and detract the flies - which always find a way in ........ I have bought a small space fly repellent and have adhered it to the inside of my wheelie bin lid by means of sticy back velcro and I've got another one attached by string via the bin lid handles - I try to remember to remove them both on bin day - don't want to lose them LOL. We've had a few maggots this summer - not sure if it's my repellents or the fact that it hasn't been very hot this summer.

Oh and as for window envelopes - remove the window and I'm sure you can recycle the rest

I've never steam cleaned my bin - just hosed it down with some Jeyes Fluid

A while back my LA sent out a leaflet about a composter that accepted food waste (i.e meat, fish etc etc - Non-vegetable) but I've seen nothing since - does anyone know anything about that type of composter?

[christina]

Not sure if any of you will know what I am talking about but when I was a child (family of 6, including adults) we had a small metal dustbin (same size as a metal garden incinerator) and in that dustbin went the rubbish from 6 people...of course not a lot of food was wasted, hardly any packaging to speak of (ie no pastic wraps, polystyrene packs which meats are now sold in), all there was was newspaper which fish was wrapped up in (ie fresh fish from shop, not chippie), grease proof paper which cheese was wrapped in, and some kind of white paper which meats were wrapped in and then put into a "paper" bag. The greengrocer wrapped veg in newspaper and stuck the spuds straight into your bag (not a give away plastic bag). Our bin was never, ever overflowing, we didnt have "black plastic sacks" and mum always washed out the bin every week. But, you know what was strange about that...the bin never smelt bad! The problem today is the packaging....even cucumbers are wrapped in pastic, tomatoes, lemons(!), in fact if you really want to, you can buy every single piece of food in a wrapper. So, what do we do: We stop buying food stuffs which are wrapped. We stop wasting food, ie don't over buy and if you are throwing away food which you've cooked, then don't cook so much...tis better to leave the table a little hungry that to overfill one's stomach. If you "buy one get one free" ensure that you really want that free one, if not, don't buy it or if it can be frozen then freeze it.

Our bins are seldom full...we place a "bread" wrapper in our kitchen bin every day (if not something which is not recyclable and has to be thrown away) which goes in the bin at the end of the day...it would take us five or six weeks to competely fill our dustbin. The only foodstuff which goes into it is potatoe peelings and a few tea bags (and they are soon to be going into a kitchen compost which our local authority is now taking up) Why not compost yourself I hear you cry....we did try it but rats and mice are a problem here. We recycle everything that is possible and, if we have the choice to buy something wrapped or unwrapped, we opt for the unwrapped.

I know its difficult to do everything, especially if one is working, but it is possible, I have done it myself and continue to do so. It's really all about choice and making a few adjustments here and there.

Some don't like the idea of freezing rubbish...I did it when I lived alone and worked long and late hours (food often went past sell by date) but as I lived alone I had plenty of room in my freezer, obviously a large family cannot do that. But again, I say, it's all about choice and adjusting a little. Nobody wants to wake up one morning and discover that there is no room, no where to put our rubbish...can you imagine that...the streets are already awash with takeaway packs, chip papers, beer and soft drinks cans and all sorts of other garbage, imagine what it would be like if we didn't dispose of our garbage sensibly...knee high in smelly old food and yukky stuff?

All that is needed is a "routine" then it becomes second nature. We all pay council tax and, yes rubbish disposal is part of what we pay for but if the councils employed more people and bought more trucks to collect all rubbish, including recycled stuff, the cost would put up our council tax...believe me our council tax would keep me and hubby in food for a year but we know we have to pay for it, its just one of those evils!

I once saw a man not 200 yards from the local tip throwing out black sacks into a farmer's field. When I confronted him it turned out to be a waiter from one of the local indian takeaways...of course I reported him to the authorities and gave them the registration number of the car. He was flytipping not 200 yards from the dump! For heavens sake! what if we all did that.

OK sorry for the rant...went off on one then lol....

Reduce waste, reduce purchases, reduce packaging and most important get into a routine..

sleep well all!

[Jez]

I agree. It's the throw away stuff that gets taken every week. Can't that stuff wait another week whilst the fetid stuff gets sorted first?? It can't be pleasant either for the bin men, I should know I was one once.

[djackso]

This isn't the case in Harrow - food and compost is emptied every week (still long enough for maggots, though), and recyclable and non-recyclable on alternate weeks.

This way everyone is forced to recycle and we don't worry about food waste smells too much.

Not bad, but then we pay them enough!

[demicav]

I have to say that I recycle everything I can but I still struggle with rubbish sometimes. You can't recycle everything such as nappies and waste from the Guinea pig hutch. Also there isn't just a problem with people having too much packaging, there's a huge problem with companies producing and using too much packaging in their products. For instance, when christmas comes around and we buy presents for the children, it takes several hours to open them due to all the extra unnecessary packaging. This is a problem that needs to be looked at. I've also seen bin lorries empty everything in together so what is the purpose in that. They then take them to the same place mixed together, the things that people have carefully separated.

[paddy]

With meat - cooked or uncooked - which is going to be wasted, i tried cooking/re-cooking it - about three times longer than necessary. Tended to find it dried right out and blackened, which as far as i know, is not much use to flies. I'm not too sure about the biology involved, but it seemed to work.
Of course, on the 'sustainability' issue, i'm wasting more energy, but this seems to be part of the 'new balance' everyone's trying to deal with....

[Tormentil]

Originally Posted by paddy

..... i tried cooking/re-cooking it - about three times longer than necessary.....

Tut, tut. Wasting more energy.

[paddy]

yeah, well here we have all the problems.... because we should be recycling so much (which we wouldn't have to if the packaging issue was sorted) we therefore don't need the bins emptied so often... but with that comes the issue of hygiene, particularly in warm, wet summers... and therefore, everyone's 'balance'... a bit more gas on the remains of the packaged chook or clouds of blowflies for 10 days, puking into everything else they come across?
I'm considering an acid bath to get rid of household waste...presumably you can recycle that where you take car batteries.......

[deer boy]

When u go shopping & buy stuff with excess packaging just take it off & leave in the shop.
If everyone did this then maybe they would use less packaging

[lincs lass]

Luckily haven't had this problem yet, bins are emptied fortnightly. Things are either recycled, burnt or bagged in the green bin.

But, I use lavender scented woodshavings in my Rabbit hutches (to prevent flystrike) as flies are not supposed to like lavender.......so you could try a lavender oil & water spray in your bins or citronella oil and water (which I also use on the nets at the windows on the bunny shed).

[djackso]

Originally Posted by lincs lass

Luckily haven't had this problem yet, bins are emptied fortnightly. Things are either recycled, burnt or bagged in the green bin.

But, I use lavender scented woodshavings in my Rabbit hutches (to prevent flystrike) as flies are not supposed to like lavender.......so you could try a lavender oil & water spray in your bins or citronella oil and water (which I also use on the nets at the windows on the bunny shed).

I'm thinking I want to be one of your Rabbits!

The citronella thing might work. I may give that a go.

[Dutchess]

I also keep quite a few Rabbits and from this I know that flies absolutely detest Zoflora disinfectant. Super-concentrated, I put it into a spray device (an empty Dettox spray or whatever) and use it in their hutches and around the shed. The flies really don't like it! More effective than Jeyes, I'd say (and it smells nicer.) I always recommend this product to newbies who want to know the best way to clean their Rabbit's hutches. There are also powdered disinfectants which are useful for sprinkling, the one I use is (naturally!) called "Rabsan" but I am sure there are others. A veterinary disinfectant such as Vanodine may be worth a try as a deterrent. It certainly gets rid of nasty niffs.

We have collections for "normal" rubbish and recyclable stuff on alternate weeks, so ours has 2 weeks to fester....

In this household, we rarely have meat leftovers, but if we do, it's in tiny quantities. So if necessary - raw or cooked - I will freeze it until nearer collection day. And no, we do *not* eat Rabbit!

Advice to securely wrap stuff seems sound to me. We ocassionally get the odd dead young bunny that needs disposing of and wrapped up and disguised in a bit of bedding (hay/woodshavings) inside a carrier bag, it gets popped into the rubbish - no probs. Perhaps you could use soil if you have none of these things available?

But oh yes indeed, I know how quickly flies detect decay as someone previously mentioned. One kicks the bucket overnight and next morning flesh flies and bluebottles are already on the prowl...(they are not usually guests in *my* Rabbit shed!) but if they are, I know straight away that one of my furries has died

Try keeping the bins in a sheltered spot, heat only worsens things.

Carcasses of chicken, etc I would not leave for Badgers and foxes etc for fear of a) attracting rats, and b) getting someone's dog or cat choked on the bones.

An simple "dustbin-like" incinerator is a great asset. We have adult buns that die off and as we cannot bury all of our beloved furries, some end up in there. But burnt along with the normal garden refuse (including a few choice herbs from the herb garden) they disappear undetected by the dreaded flies. Any remains are buried.

Sticky fly papers are very popular on the continent but personally, I hate them *heave*! But they may well be something else you could consider?

hth

D.

[Dutchess]

Originally Posted by Tormentil

It's not a 'right', it's a service we pay for.

At first I agreed with the poster you answered - but yes. So long as we do pay for it, we should expect it to be carried out. However; we should adapt.

Gosh, I can remember when everything was chucked into the bin! No binliner, no black sacks, no wrapped stuff....but it all went in there. Dad used to do it out with Jeyes (the real stuff!) and use powdered "IZAL" (erm, was that the name???) to stop the stink! lol. The Rabbits had the veggie kitchen waste, the dogs the meaty stuff, and as fancy packaging was at a minimum then, at least the stinky bin was just the one

OT a tad, but I remember when to be "on the bins" was a coveted job. You had to be in the know to get in on it. And bin-men had great perks - they recovered some treasures from the muck! I doubt if today that is the case? Who knows....

D.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by demicav

I have to say that I recycle everything I can but I still struggle with rubbish sometimes. You can't recycle everything such as nappies and waste from the Guinea pig hutch.

waste from the guniea pig hutch would compost would it not ? (our rat bedding does) and as to nappies this is what people mean about the disposable society - when my sister and i was young (which wasnt that long ago ) mum used terry towelling nappies and boil washed them when they were fouled - not the nicest job in the world but a lot less wasteful of energy and resources , we were also potty trained young keeping the nappy period to a minimum.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Can anyone tell me how to keep maggots out of the wheelie bin..
.

the best way to keep maggots out of the wheelie bin is not to put rubbish in it !

seriously though as others have said its about keeping meat waste to a minimum - we hang our chicken carcases , lamb bones etc up for the birds, wash then recycle all poly meat trays etc and eat what is on our plates. This means we barely have any meat waste , vegetable waste all goes in the compost bin , and tins etc are washed before being crushed and recycled.

as a result we have never had a maggot problem.

Of course your other alternative is to confront and overcome your phobia - they are only baby flies they arent going to hurt you.

[Lance Morgan]

''Of course your other alternative is to confront and overcome your phobia - they are only baby flies they arent going to hurt you''

No when they are bigger and hatch into flies they will land on you feed on sweat by regurgitating the contents of their stomach and suck it back up again, walk on you and your food etc etc. yummy

[Tursiops2]

Has anybody tried Bokashi?
Bokashi Explained : LeanGreenHome.co.uk

[Lance Morgan]

That's interesting Tursiops
I've never heard of it before. Do you have any experience of this?
For a long time I have been trying to think how we can reduce the amount of food waste.

[nutmeg]

We started using a 'Green Cone' about 18 months or so ago. It's in the garden near the ordinary compost bins and takes all food waste. Nice idea and was fine initially. However, it's quite expensive and I've not been impressed with the quality as the plastic has already become brittle and has cracked

[demicav]

Originally Posted by eeyore

waste from the guniea pig hutch would compost would it not ? (our rat bedding does) and as to nappies this is what people mean about the disposable society - when my sister and i was young (which wasnt that long ago ) mum used terry towelling nappies and boil washed them when they were fouled - not the nicest job in the world but a lot less wasteful of energy and resources , we were also potty trained young keeping the nappy period to a minimum.

In an ideal world we would all use terry towelling nappies but unfortunately this is far from an ideal world and terry nappies would bring their own problems for me such as the water metre going through the roof amongst other things. Also, not all children can be toileted early, some are disabled, I speak from first hand experience with this. Also older children do not fit in terry towelling nappies, they wear special ones. I go out of my way to recycle everything I can but as I say, not all can be recycled. The nappies and Guinea pig waste were only two examples.

[maggot at toad hall]

I also hose the bin with some Jeyes Fluid. I wrap all food waste in newspaper or place in cereal boxes (plastic wrapping can't go in the green bin). Between the two methods, it usually does the trick, but last week I was glad to see the bin emptied as the warm damp weather encouraged the flies.
Maggots for the first time this year swarmed out of the bin and sat along the rim on the inside, once you open the bin they start to move in all directions.
Many people have complained to the local councils in my area regarding the fortnightly rubbish removal of the green bin in the summer months and there has been various complaints printed in the local free newspaper on the same topic. Nothing has changed. Refuse collection is not a right, it is a service, which we pay for and it is limited to one removal per week. For the couple of weeks when the weather and conditions mean I'll get a few maggots, I don't think this is a real problem.

Maggots are clean beasties with a passion for eating up dead flesh etc. No need to be concerned about them. I believe maggots are used to help clean up wounds in medical situations; they eat decaying flesh.

I just don't want them to turn into flies so...I scooped up the maggots and put them out for the birds; they soon disappeared.

[coasty]

If you put raw meat fish etc and to a lesser extent cooked meat in the bin and the bag it is in isnt sealed then you will get maggots.
I fish and often have fish remains after filleting to dispose of. I Wrap them in newspaper and have a bright orange carrier bag in the freezer ( so I dont put things in it by accident)which I pop all such remains in until bin emptying day When it all gos in the Bin, Saves smells and visits from Mr Foxy as well as stopping maggots....