How To Kill Maggots
A Simple Guide on How to Kill Maggots
If you are wondering how to kill maggots, it is probably because you have come across them recently. You were most likely throwing out some garbage or doing some spring-cleaning when you came across these disgusting little fly larvae. Something about the slimy, putrid quality of maggots really makes our stomachs churn.
Luckily, although it is not the most pleasant of tasks, getting rid of maggots is not difficult; in fact, it is as close as your kitchen sink.
How to Kill Maggots: Boiling Water
The easiest way to kill maggot is with boiling water. By boiling, I mean a rolling boil, not just very hot water. Very hot water will just irritate them and they will crawl away. They are, in fact, faster than they look. Once you have your water at a boil, you just poor it right over them and they will die.
Of course, the real problem with this method is that maggots never really help you out by just crawling out into the open and sitting there waiting for you to dump a horrible boiling death on them. Maggots are usually in and around thrash bins where you have discarded food. Therefore, before you apply what you have learned about how to kill maggots, you will need to clean out the garbage bin.
Cleaning the Garbage Bin
By far, the most unpleasant part of getting rid of maggots is cleaning the garbage bin. If you operate a business like a restaurant and have maggots in one of your large industrial size dumpsters, you may want to wait a day or so until the waste removal service in your area comes to haul it away. However, if it is going to be more than a day or so before garbage day and the weather is going to be hot, you might have to face the situation and take care of it yourself, otherwise you might find a large swarm of flies surrounding your business and no doubt attracting the attention of the health department.
Before tackling this problem, you should make sure to dress properly. Although maggots will not really do much to you (unless you have open wounds—in which case, maggots may not be your central problem), I am yet to meet someone who enjoys the feel of slimy larvae crawling on them. That, in fact, may be what drove you to look up how to kill maggots in the first place. To avoid this sensation, you will need gloves. The plastic kitchen kind works well because they are impermeable. You should also wear long sleeves, pants that you don’t mind getting dirty, and shoes that don’t have any holes in them (rubber boots if you have to go into a dumpster).
Then you need to bag up all of the loose garbage in the bin. If the bin is small enough you may simply be able to dump it all into a large garden bag and then seal it. If not, you can simply turn it on its side with a bag opened under the bottom lip of the bin and shovel the garbage into the bag. Don’t worry about the maggots that end up in the bag and don’t try to chase after the ones that get away. As you fill each bag, seal it tightly, and knot it at the top. It needs to be an airtight seal so that even if the maggots change to flies they will not escape.
Check your bags carefully for holes, no matter how small. If you find any, double bag them so you will not have any escapees.
Once the bin is empty of trash, you can now take it near a curbside drain and simply hose out the maggots. If you really want to kill them, you can throw boiling water on them, but this is really unnecessary if they are outside already. If they are inside you might kill them with boiling water and then clean them up with paper towels. Be sure to tightly knot the bag you use for this as well and take it out of the house right away.
Make sure you clean off the area around the garbage bin as well.
To avoid further infestation you should keep all sorts of organic matter, tightly bagged.