brown bin - flies - there has to be a better way

JuliusCaesar

My brown bin is revolting! Everytime I open it to put stuff in, a huge swarm of flies of different kinds flies out. I've got garden waste in there from cutting grass and hedge, and also food waste, but no meat waste.

Our household is small and doesn't produce a lot of waste and I put it out every month only half full or less because of the hygiene issue.

But seriously, there has to be a better way. Even a bin between two or more households, or smaller bins at a lesser charge for small households.

So AHers, any ideas of how this could be better managed?

And any ideas for how to keep the flies down?

Jesus Shaves

Fly spray?

Saganist

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

My brown bin is revolting! Everytime I open it to put stuff in, a huge swarm of flies of different kinds flies out. I've got garden waste in there from cutting grass and hedge, and also food waste, but no meat waste.

Our household is small and doesn't produce a lot of waste and I put it out every month only half full or less because of the hygiene issue.

But seriously, there has to be a better way. Even a bin between two or more households, or smaller bins at a lesser charge for small households.

So AHers, any ideas of how this could be better managed?

And any ideas for how to keep the flies down?

As above.

Open it, and blast it with fly spray then close.

Not a great solution but it does work.

davet82

stop using the brown bin, its disgusting

hidinginthebush

Fill a glass / jam jar with bleach and a load of sugar and leave it nearby, they can't keep away from the stuff

jester77

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

My brown bin is revolting! Everytime I open it to put stuff in, a huge swarm of flies of different kinds flies out. I've got garden waste in there from cutting grass and hedge, and also food waste, but no meat waste.

Our household is small and doesn't produce a lot of waste and I put it out every month only half full or less because of the hygiene issue.

But seriously, there has to be a better way. Even a bin between two or more households, or smaller bins at a lesser charge for small households.

So AHers, any ideas of how this could be better managed?

And any ideas for how to keep the flies down?

Put it out at least once a week instead, once a month is inviting trouble. Flies are nesting in there, great feeding ground for maggots.

Zab

I have to bring my bins through the house to get them to the street. It's gross.

There's only a two euro charge on the brown bin.

Local-womanizer

Burn it down

shopaholic01

Place food in a compostable bag and get a large compostable liner for your bin. Use the liner to cover the contents each time you place items inside and it should reduce the flies.


Some herbs repel flies (basil, bayleaf, lavender, mint, rosemary), so you could place plant pots with these around the bin.

Most of these bins are collected fortnightly so always put it out, even if it contains very little waste.

csi vegas

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

My brown bin is revolting! Everytime I open it to put stuff in, a huge swarm of flies of different kinds flies out. I've got garden waste in there from cutting grass and hedge, and also food waste, but no meat waste.

Our household is small and doesn't produce a lot of waste and I put it out every month only half full or less because of the hygiene issue.

And any ideas for how to keep the flies down?

See, there's your problem right there (bold) - WHERE pray I ask, do you keep it the rest of the month? Indoors? A garage/shed of some sort?
If so there's your breeding ground. The critters thrive in the humidity you are providing them with. You are essentially creating a micro-environment for their thrival (that's a word I just made up).

Also - to keep the flies down you should unzip your pants.

Sykk

What's the difference between a bird and a fly?

A bird can fly but a fly can't bird

*gets coat *

bhamsteve

If you have a garden or back yard get a compost heap instead.

fishy fishy

wash your bin. !

AnonoBoy

Dump everything over the back wall into your noisy neighbour's garden.

Problem solved.

Sappa

Compost,
I haven't put food in the bin collection in yrs,nice for the local wildlife as well they make short work of a pile each week.

davet82

you could also try stop wasting food and let the garden go au naturel

JuliusCaesar

csi vegas wrote: »

See, there's your problem right there (bold) - WHERE pray I ask, do you keep it the rest of the month? Indoors? A garage/shed of some sort?
If so there's your breeding ground. The critters thrive in the humidity you are providing them with. You are essentially creating a micro-environment for their thrival (that's a word I just made up).

Also - to keep the flies down you should unzip your pants.

The bin is out in the garden.

The garden is tiny so I produce too much compost for me to use.

The bin is collected fortnightly only.

Three quid is three quid. Greyhound and other waste companies need to find a better way of collecting green/brown waste.

I'll try the lavendar plantation.





Flies are neither attracted nor repelled by my pants (or the contents of my pants) - :P

Anyone

Had this problem this year myself. I have the standard black bin though, cleaned the bin out with a hose and doused it in Jeyes Fluid. Everything goes in a black bag which is tied now, and put in the bin.

Jeyes also have a spray for bins which I use, which seems to keep it clean and fly/maggot free.

Put the bin out more if possible. You could ask for a smaller bin, which will fill faster.

Solair

You can buy compostable bags which are suitable for use in brown bins.
They're available in our local Tesco.

Just bag up the compostable waste.

Just check that the bags comply with EN 134132 i.e. break down within 10 to 45 days max.

I think anything compostable needs to be collected weekly.

There's no reason why pay-by-weight systems for non-sorted rubbish couldn't collect weekly either, this concept of charging per bin-lift is just encouraging people to retain festering waste at their homes in the wheelie bin to avoid paying for a tag. There has to be rodent / health implications to this kind of thing.

csi vegas

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

I'll try the lavendar plantation.

Flies are neither attracted nor repelled by my pants (or the contents of my pants) - :P

Yes, lavender. It will make them sleepy. And while they sleep you can throw in a coke and aspirin bomb on them, see how they like that huh?

It's nice to know that they take a neutral stance to your pants.

danniemcq

from what i learned in Irish (long story) the idea would be to actually put holes in the bin.

Thus allowing the flies to get out.

He lives on a farm and/or has sheep and the odd time when there would be a dead animal (lamb or other) he'd dump it all into the same bin right by his back door along with food etc.

The flies would lay the eggs and maggots form. They keep the smell down by eating the rotten flesh etc and when they hatch they are able to fly through the holes in the lid.

I guess that the thnking behind it was it allowed

a) air to circulate
b) allowed lots more flies in to lay eggs meaning more maggots
c) this meant even less smell
d) when he opened the lid there wasn't a swarm of wee feckers looking for escape

humbert

You need to attract spiders, somehow.

CardBordWindow

Have you tried installing a cat?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An7ZB5dM-gg

Solair

Some of the brown bins had holes all over the sides to allow air to circulate.

Zab

Solair wrote: »

You can buy compostable bags which are suitable for use in brown bins.
They're available in our local Tesco..

My local lidl has them too.

Ficheall

Get a few spiders?

csi vegas

CardBordWindow wrote: »

Have you tried installing a cat?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An7ZB5dM-gg

Oh Jeezus! Haha! (but not haha) That phyco bítch!

bluecode

I had the same problem with my brown bin. To make it worse I missed the collection so the thing has been sitting there for a month. When I opened it there were maggots everywhere. The bags were actually moving. :eek: My hair is actually standing on end right now thinking about it. I threw some garden waste on top of it to cover the horror. It goes out tomorrow for sure and I'll wash out the bin with disinfectant.

hidinginthebush

danniemcq wrote: »

from what i learned in Irish (long story) the idea would be to actually put holes in the bin.

Thus allowing the flies to get out.

He lives on a farm and/or has sheep and the odd time when there would be a dead animal (lamb or other) he'd dump it all into the same bin right by his back door along with food etc.

The flies would lay the eggs and maggots form. They keep the smell down by eating the rotten flesh etc and when they hatch they are able to fly through the holes in the lid.

I guess that the thnking behind it was it allowed

a) air to circulate
b) allowed lots more flies in to lay eggs meaning more maggots
c) this meant even less smell
d) when he opened the lid there wasn't a swarm of wee feckers looking for escape

The lid on my black bin has a crack on it that the flies can get through. To be honest, I'd rather the smell than the maggots, every time I open the bin, if they're there, I nearly puke, ****ing disgusting

Coincidently, there's holes in the brown bin,but I use those biodegradable bags in the brown bin, and the flies don't seem too bothered with it.

Medusa22

I have a compost bin in the garden (it came with the house, we're renting) and I find it really disgusting. Every time I use it there are flies flying right into my face. I put food into the black bin now and my girlfriend has to put food into the compost bin if she likes because I refuse to do so

ScumLord

shopaholic01 wrote: »

Most of these bins are collected fortnightly so always put it out, even if it contains very little waste.

Pay per lift means that's a no go.

My bin only goes out once ever 2 or 3 months. Luckily I smoke so I have no idea if it smells bad or not. I think it takes me so long to put out the bins because the flies are eating it faster than I can fill it.

Really you should be thanking the flies for reducing your waste costs, every time I see a gang of flies leave my bin I make the cur-ching noise as I watch waste costs fly into my neighbours kitchens.

holystungun9

hidinginthebush wrote: »

Fill a glass / jam jar with bleach and a load of sugar and leave it nearby, they can't keep away from the stuff

Failing that, just take a big dirty dump beside the bin.

(two flies on a log of poo, one of them farts. " hey buddy, do you mind? I'm trying to eat hear!)

Super-Rush

Brown bin?

clintondaly

Jeyes do a Bin Powder as well in Dunnes,does the job

jayteecork

What has the colour got to do with it?

shopaholic01

ScumLord wrote: »

Pay per lift means that's a no go.

My bin only goes out once ever 2 or 3 months. Luckily I smoke so I have no idea if it smells bad or not. I think it takes me so long to put out the bins because the flies are eating it faster than I can fill it.

Really you should be thanking the flies for reducing your waste costs, every time I see a gang of flies leave my bin I make the cur-ching noise as I watch waste costs fly into my neighbours kitchens.

I pay a standard charge of €25 p/m and can put the bins out as often as I want. General waste is one week, then recycling and compost the next. Glass bin is collected once a month.

I don't know how that compares to a 'pay per lift' system, but it's great being able to put the bins out regularly, especially in warm weather.

sweetie

A few months ago I had the pleasure of emptying out brown bin which was 60% full and sifting through the waste to find my wives eternity ring. I didnt enjoy it but I could do it again! All I put in it now is garden waste; all food waste goes to the black bin which goes out fortnightly due to the amount of nappies in it. I find a manure bag (try a farm) covering the brown bin is a help.

Tope

jayteecork wrote: »

What has the colour got to do with it?

The brown bin system isn't in place everywhere so just to clarify:
You're issued with a regular black wheelie bin for general rubbish, a green one for recyclables (paper, plastic, etc.) and a brown one for organic matter (i.e. food etc). Not sure how strict they are about checking the contents, but you're supposed to stick to the right bins.

Depending on the area, these are collected at different times, weekly for the black bin, fortnightly for the green, maybe monthly for the brown, and there's a charge per collection.

In my area we just have the black and green, which is fine, but my mum was issued with the brown bin last year. She lives alone and it takes ages for her to fill the brown bin enough to put it out for collection. It gets really nasty in there, but she doesn't like to waste money having it collected before it's full. It's only a few euro but it all adds up.

I reckon they didn't think the system through properly to be honest, maybe they assumed people produce more organic waste than they do. It's fine to keep recyclables sitting around for weeks because it's clean stuff, but I think the brown bins should be collected weekly and not charged extra. You can't have bins full of rotting food sitting around in people's kitchens or gardens, it's really unpleasant and probably unhygienic.

thesimpsons

put the daily waste in the freezer in ice cream type container and only put it in the brown bin the night before you leave it out for collection. No smell - sorted !

loveisdivine

You shouldnt really put meat into your regular compost heap. Its 2 different types of bacteria, both of which require different conditions to "compost" stuff properly. Plus it will stink just like the brown bin does and have maggots and flies, and attract other animals. Not a problem really, but if you are trying to avoid bad smells/flies and magots, then that wont really help.

We just use the compostable bags and that seem to do the trick. Every now and again we put in some of that citrus powder stuff which helps if its particularly bad.

Solair

Apart from stinking, meat will also cause problems like attracting rats and other wild animals as well as the local cats and dogs.

As far as I am aware, they only want green waste and vegetable matter in brown bins.

Zab

Solair wrote: »

As far as I am aware, they only want green waste and vegetable matter in brown bins.

Nah, in the greyhound ones you can put meat and food-soiled paper/cardboard too.

Solair

Zab wrote: »

Nah, in the greyhound ones you can put meat and food-soiled paper/cardboard too.

That's why they whiff

**Timbuk2**

Use old newspapers, wrap the food well inside the newspaper, put the newspapers in the bin. Stops food from getting stuck to the side of the inside of the bin which is attracting the flies.

Rabidlamb

We changed bin companies about 6 months ago, told them we didn't want the brown bin.
I put the food waste on top of the house bin refuse sack when emptying then tie, works at treat.

--Kaiser--

davet82 wrote: »

stop using the brown bin, its disgusting

This is the solution. It stinks, it breeds flies and really, what is the ****ing point?

Fecky the Ninth

Sell the maggots to anglers, about four euro a pint. Pays for your bin charges. Every cloud hase a silver lining. :pac:

Solair

If you just bag the stuff in those compostable bags, there's really no issue though. Just seal them up tightly and don't put really wet stuff in.

Zab

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

This is the solution. It stinks, it breeds flies and really, what is the ****ing point?

Do you really not know what the point is?

--Kaiser--

Zab wrote: »

Do you really not know what the point is?

Nope. Most recycling is a waste of time and energy. I assume this is probably the same

Jaxxy

Whatever about recycling the cardboard or glass or clean plastic, that's no bother, but actual food? I don't get it. Is this a relatively new thing? I'll stick to putting my food in a regular bin like I have done for the last twenty odd years of my life, thanks. It's worth the couple of euro.