Nobody enjoys finding maggots in their wheelie bin, but when those maggots mature into adult flies that swarm around your face every time you pop out to dispose of your rubbish, it can quickly become a real nuisance. And there's nothing quite like a cloud of buzzing flies to put a dampener on a summer barbecue when you're trying to tidy up afterwards.
Although different fly species tend to feed on varying things, house flies and fruit flies are among the most common culprits when it comes to devouring food waste. They're typically drawn to decaying matter and the yeast cells that develop on sugary substances and fermenting or rotting fruit.
To prevent flies from descending on your wheelie bin, a cleaning influencer behind the TikTok page @singleworkingmom has revealed a straightforward, all-natural trick.
The cleaning expert recommends using white vinegar to "keep flies away from your bins", suggesting you soak a common bathroom item in the acidic liquid.
Thanks to its powerful, acidic smell, vinegar naturally repels flies, and the substance can also dehydrate maggots and kill them on contact. Much like many other organisms, maggots need a specific pH range in order to survive. The acidic properties of vinegar disrupt this balance considerably. When maggots are exposed to vinegar, the pH level in their surroundings drops sharply, making the environment uninhabitable and ultimately lethal for them.
The acidic nature of vinegar essentially acts as a pesticide, and within just a few hours, you should see a notable drop in both the maggot and fly population.
How to stop flies invading your wheelie bin with vinegar
For this method, the cleaner begins by taking a sanitary pad and fixing it to 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 method for deterring flies is to wrap food waste in newspaper before disposing of it in the bin. Using newspaper will trap food scraps and soak up any liquid the waste releases, making flies far less inclined to approach your bins. It will stop unpleasant odours and food stains from accumulating inside a wheelie bin, keeping it cleaner, meaning you won't need to hose it down constantly during the summer months.
Many people also add cat litter to the bottom of their bin, which may seem unusual, but as it's designed to absorb liquid and odours, it proves remarkably effective at keeping flies away from bins.
