maggots!

That's disgusting.

The answer is to be scrupulously clean. Make sure your bin is well washed out, and remove all kitchen waste and waste food promptly.
I used to work in a grocery store in the 1970's and we had an ongoing problem with maggots. They liked the bacon carcasses! If we didn't get rid of them as soon as they'd been used the flies would lay their eggs on them. Fortunately the shop and prep area always passed it's inspection by the environmental health people.?

We had maggots in our dustbin once , we went on a 2week holiday and neighbour should have put bin out on collection day as we always look after each others bins when either of us away, but ours was forgotten and it just happened to be a really hot summer.. It was disgusting but easily sorted ..just empty and disinfect and clean and empty bin more often .especially in hot weather.

Do you use a bin liner as this would most likely contain things. We got them in our big outside wheelie bin that we have to put the black bags in last summer when it was very hot - we washed it all out and made liberal use of Jeyes fluid in the base on newspaper in the bottom.

I use a bin liner too, in the small bin for food waste.
We have to recycle everything here and most of our leftover food goes to the cat dog and chickens.

I always use a bin liner and before I put a new one in, I squirt kitchen cleaner into the plastic liner of the bin or a drop of Zoflora. Just to be doubly sure and remove any whiffs!

I can remember having maggots in our old metal dustbin, but making a fire in the bin sorted them out, then finished off with a liberal dusting of Izal bin powder. This was a looong time ago and I don't expect the Izal stuff is still made

Flies can squeeze into almost any gap and lay eggs, then maggots!

Even with restricting what you put in your kitchen bin, there may still be a tiny trace of something that a fly will view as an attractive place to lay eggs.

Yes you can still get the bin powder ..We use it

How horrible for you. Do you put the smelly sort of food waste in your bin? What I do with anything but purely veg waste is stick it in a bag in the freezer until the night before the bin men come. Otherwise I just know I'll have bluebottles buzzing about.

While once tidying up just before leaving a relative's holiday home in France, I found a packet of Camembert someone had for some reason left on a high shelf in the pantry. When I picked it up it was literally alive with maggots! I screamed and dropped it - there were maggots all over the floor. Had to get Dh to get rid of them - he flushed them down the loo, with new-mother dd saying, 'But they're somebody's babies too!'

Putting grass cuttings in the compost bin, I decided to turn the contents. It was alive with maggots. Don't know how to sort that out so I put the lid on.

Disgusting is a bit strong Petra
Don't be embarrassed chelseababy ....it happens, flies are all over the place at the moment some really big old buzzers in my house yesterday
Always use a bin liner, and a squirt of bleach into the bottom of the bin when you take the bin liner out to empty
Last time I had maggots was when the ex used to go fishing and kept a tub of maggots in my fridge ....I did say ex

If you are going away leave the bin outside if you can, that way anything developing will be exposed to the air and not be waiting inside for you to return.

Last time I had maggots was when the ex used to go fishing and kept a tin of maggots in the fridge. There you are! A ready made business opportunity! Our tackle shop sells them at £2 a pint. ?

Good advice from travelsafar just stand the kitchen bin outside when you are away . Give it a good bleach over before you go and it should be fine. We had maggots in our outside wheelie bin a few weeks ago ( I thought it was grains of rice too chelsea and it wasn't until the rice started moving that the penny dropped . Gross. We are usually really careful about wrapping things up before we bin them too. To get rid of them DH used bleach and hot water then used the outside sweeping brush to give it a good clean .

We have had mog goats in our outside bin like others have said use liners and give a good clean with bleach . You can't always stop flies getting in bin and laying eggs . i would leave bin outside when you go away bleach area in kitchen where bin stands . Have a good holiday .

Arrived home - thankfully no flies! Thanks for all the tips.

All our food waste is wrapped before going in the firmly closed food waste bin, and anything likely to attract flies (scraps of meat, fish, etc.) goes in a bag in the freezer until the night before the bin men come.
That way you don't have stuff that will attract flies festering for any length of time.
We've never had any maggots.

All our food waste veg peel etc goes in compost bin. It's teeming with worms. That only leaves the recycling and the normal dustbin is mainly dry packaging. Never had maggots. Won't the birds eat them??

A couple of weeks ago I lifted the lid of the big brown bin which is emptied fortnightly, food waste and garden stuff. It was full of flies. A liberal dousing of fly spray and the lid down quickly !!