We've all been there - you go to put something in your wheelie bin and find flies swarming around it, usually accompanied by maggots wriggling around inside the bin itself. It's a skin-crawling experience, but it's one that almost all of us have had to deal with at some point.
And while your first instinct might be to move house or set your bin on fire, there's - thankfully - a much cheaper and less dramatic way of dealing with the bothersome bugs, Express.co.uk reports. One woman has discovered that a simple kitchen staple that you probably already have in your cupboards can rid your bin of maggots and flies - and if you don't have any at home, it's dead cheap to buy.
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Posting on a Mrs Hinch cleaning fans page on Facebook, the woman said the only item you need is some table salt, which most of us will already, but can be bought for just 27p from Tesco - or 30p from ASDA - if you happen to have run out.
The woman shared her life hack after one person in the group asked: "My outdoor bin has just been emptied by the bin men and there are maggots in the bottom. Does anyone know, once I've cleaned it out, what I can use to deter the flies from my bin?"
And she responded: "My mum had this problem. We put table salt into the bottom of the bin and left it for a couple of days. Went down today and just tipped the salt out along with the dead maggots."
The woman was backed up by others who also use salt to keep maggots and other bin-dwelling bugs at bay, with some saying they've "never had a problem" with insects since putting salt at the bottom of their bins.
One wrote: "I jet wash my bin out then put salt in the bottom then buy the bags - never had a problem."
As another added: "Sprinkle a generous amount of salt in the bin each time you put something new in it."
There were also those who took a different approach, suggesting the poster use bleach to kill anything that might be living in her bins, as well as some who said using Jeyes Fluid or baking soda once the bin has been cleaned out.
Someone said: "We scrub ours out with hot water and bleach, then empty the liquid away and pour some Jeyes Fluid around the inside of it. Works for me, I even put a drop of fly killer in it once it's dry."
While someone else posted: "I just leave a little bleach in the bottom of the bin no problem since."
And a third wrote: "Sprinkle baking soda in the bottom of the bin every time it's emptied."
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