Garbage and Flies

Maybe you could do a compost pile instead? They have ready made kits that come with worms that breakdown all the food. May not be feasible for you but That would get rid of a lot of the organic stinky material! One thing we do, if we have something that tends to get really stinky like fish or corn on the cob, we put it in a plastic shopping bag and toss it in an extra freezer we have in the garage. The night before trash day we toss it in the trash. keeps the bin from getting so gross.

I have always kept the lid on securely at all times. One time, when we lived in the country, we had a whole other problem. Raccoons! Had to bungie tie the lid closed. It worked and was entertaining watching 'em try!

I would use bleach water instead of amonia or you could even sprinkle a little Ajax cleanser in the bottom of the can after they are hosed out. I cannot imagine any maggots living in that!

I have the same problem!! I haven't figured out a solution either. I use a garbage bag in my bin, but that still gets all nasty and maggets come! Ugh, just so gross. I have tried spraying vinager, but that didn't work. I also wash my can out with bleach every week, but every week they keep coming back. I know it's because I put raw meat packages and diapers in there and that's what they eat. Plus is it baking out in the sun in the summer. I was washing out all my meat packages, but I thought that was just a waste of water. If you do find something that works, I would love to know! I wear gardening gloves to pull my trash bags out and to wash the bin...yes, I am that creeped out by the maggets!!
Oh and just so you know, my garabage bin is just a five gallon one you can pick up from Ace or whereever and the lid is always on. I only have bag pick up in my neighborhood, so I have to pull the bag out and set it on the curb. I feel bad for my garbage man:(

Rather than ammonia (because I wouldn't want a chemical there either), I'd try vinegar. It's a pretty good disinfectant for everything else. Haven't had to go that route yet myself but that's what I would try.

I received an email a while ago about filling a ziplock bag half full of water and adding 4-6 pennies. Something about the reflection and flies eyes that keeps them away. You should pin the baggies up somewhere either by the door or maybe even over your garbage cans. I should tell you I tried this for my neighbors open house last weekend and it did seem to work. I will try it myself this summer in our garage.

I keep a tupperware bowl in the freezer and anything that would start smelling and won't go in the disposal(I don't have a baby with diapers, lol) I put in there until garbage day. The freezing keeps it from rotting and stinking and since there isn't any food in the garbage it doesn't attract bugs. We also recycle about 75% of our stuff so usually have no more than 1-2 bags of garbage(kitchen size bags) a week for a family of 4.

omg Dee i have the same problem... well mine is more that we keep the garbage and diaper pail in the garage, which attracts flies and they end up coming in the house! I've talked to Orkin about it and everything.. Hate them nasty lil suckers! We use to have the maggot problem but haven't seen that lately.. .We try to double bag (putting the first one in upside down into the new one) anything that might have meat or anything in it... And we use the garbage disposal for as much as we can... I'm curious what others are saying, glad you asked the question..gonna go check out your answers now! :)

We line our cans with drum liners the second we bring them back up after the garbage truck comes. Everything, including bagged garbage goes in then. Drum liners or contractor bags are much thicker. When it's time to bring the can to the curb, we just tie up the liner.