Wheelie bins will never attract flies if you use one natural item that insects 'stay away' from. Bin day is bad enough, but when you have to deal with swarms of flies, it can make the chore far worse. Fortunately, it's not that hard to know how to get rid of flies around your wheelie bin.
Dealing with maggots in your wheelie bin is bad enough, but when those maggots grow up and become adult flies that swarm around your face every time you take out the rubbish, it can be annoying. There's nothing that ruins a summertime barbecue like the buzzing of a fly infestation you encounter while cleaning up.
While each fly species likes to eat something a little different, house flies and fruit flies are common species known to devour food waste. Oftentimes, these pests are attracted to decaying matter and the yeast cells that grow on sugary substances and fermenting or rotting fruits.
To avoid flies swarming in and around your wheelie bin, a cleaning influencer who runs the TikTok page @singleworkingmom has shared a simple trick that's all-natural.
Difference between baking soda and bicarbonate of soda explained
Five common features to remove from your living room that make your home look cheap and tacky
The cleaner recommends using white vinegar to 'keep flies away from your bins' and says to saturate one bathroom item in the acidic liquid. Due to its strong, acidic scent, vinegar naturally deters flies, and the natural chemical can also dehydrate maggots and kill them on contact.
Similar to various other organisms, maggots require a certain pH range to thrive. The acidic properties of vinegar interfere with this balance. When maggots come into contact with vinegar, the pH level in their environment decreases significantly, rendering it unlivable and eventually fatal for them. The acidic nature of the vinegar acts as a pesticide, and within a few hours, you should notice a significant reduction in the maggot and fly population.
How to stop flies invading your wheelie bin with vinegar
For this hack, the cleaner starts by grabbing a sanitary pad and sticking it down on the inside lid of her wheelie bin. She then picks up a bottle of cheap distilled white vinegar and douses the sanitary pad in the vinegar. The cleaner said, 'Then just close your bin. The flies don't like the smell of vinegar, and they stay away from your bin, and you won't get flies all surrounding your bin.'
Another way to deter flies is to wrap up food waste in newspaper before putting it in the bin. Using newspaper will trap food and absorb any liquid the waste produces, so flies are less likely to go near your bins. It will prevent bad smells and food stains from building up inside a wheelie bin, so it stays clean and you do not have to keep hosing it down all the time in the summer.
Many people also throw cat litter into the bottom of their bin, which might sound strange, but it is designed to absorb liquid and odours, so it is very useful to keep flies away from bins.
