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I made this topic a while back in my city forum but didn’t get much at all of a response. This forum seems more suited for the question.
The county is on a once a week curbside garbage pickup as of a few years ago. Prior to that it was twice weekly. I’ve been in the area about 20 years. Never saw common houseflies, maybe one would pop up every couple months. Had never even seen a fruit fly.
Since going to once a week pickup there has been an increasing amount of flies around. One or two frequently make their way inside the house. You can hardly sit and eat outdoors or you spend your entire time shooting flies off the table. There is a near constant population of 1-4 fruit flies visible in the house, despite having absolutely no organic matter sitting out no fruits no vegetables, everything gets cleaned and wiped down. they are killed/trapped but reappear the next day.
If walking around the neighborhood when everyone has the garbage by the curb it’s not uncommon to see swarms of flies surrounding the garbage cans.
We do what we can to minimize odors and possibly attract pests. Everything is sealed tightly and very strong products such as meat and meat juice remain in the freezer until the last minute when the garbage is put out. The indoor trash bins and outside garbage can are routinely cleaned. Despite our best efforts it also isn’t uncommon to have flies around our outside trash.
The neighborhood I live in has houses on lots under 10k square feet so everything is in close proximity. What this means is even if there was nothing on our propert attracting flies, there is still 5+ neighbors with garbage cans within speaking distance.
What can be done about this, if anything? I’m not expecting the county to return to twice a week pickup on account of some bugs and fully understand the economic benefit of once a week pickup. I also understand it is impossible or even absurd to implement and enforce some kind of trash courtesy program in the neighborhood.
Well, you are in Florida so I don't know if the moderate annual temperatures would have anything to do with it (seriously, what do I know). Also I do wonder what type of garbage cans do you all have there? Our municipal garbage cans are large green, some type of plastic with firmly fitted hinge closing tops. Just curious.
Have you tried changing garbage day? Maybe the flies will be fooled?
Sometimes the obvious needs to be stated out loud: flies can fly. If neighbors are in close proximity ,it only takes one guy on the block improperly sealing bags to give the bugs more habitat.
I don't get it: one thread here has people complaining there ain't enough bugs anymore, and here's somebody complaining there's too many.
Well, you are in Florida so I don't know if the moderate annual temperatures would have anything to do with it (seriously, what do I know). Also I do wonder what type of garbage cans do you all have there? Our municipal garbage cans are large green, some type of plastic with firmly fitted hinge closing tops. Just curious.
The thing is I have been in Florida for as I mention 20 years dealing with moderate to hot temps. Encountering flies was extremely rare. In my childhood when I lived out of the country and in a rural farm area flies were everywhere.
I have no doubt the temperature accentuated the problem, once it presented itself. Before the problem though, there were no flies.
I did a bit of digging the cans are 95 gallon behemoths that get picked up by a truck with a robotic arm. The change was made in 2015 Orange cuts trash pickup - Orlando Sentinel
Quote:
Originally Posted by KaraG
I've never lived in a place with twice weekly garbage pick up, so I doubt if that's the problem.
Another thing that draws flies is dog waste. Being so close together, maybe you have neighbors that don't clean up their small yards often enough.
Most of my neighbors are long time residents. If you walk at dusk the night before trash day everybody’s buns has flies swarming around. I’ve tried to consider every factor and the only major change that coincides with the increase in nuicanse flies is the reduction in garbage pickup.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reactionary
Does your county use 'automated' bins with lids, or do you use your own cans? Lids make a positive difference.
Standardized 95 gallon trash and 95 gallon recycling with flap on lids. Unfortunately flies get past the lids. We didn’t have the fly problem before when households used whatever container they could get their hands on but it was picked up twice a week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto
Have you tried changing garbage day? Maybe the flies will be fooled?
Sometimes the obvious needs to be stated out loud: flies can fly. If neighbors are in close proximity ,it only takes one guy on the block improperly sealing bags to give the bugs more habitat.
I don't get it: one thread here has people complaining there ain't enough bugs anymore, and here's somebody complaining there's too many.
Unfortunately the county sets the garbage day for different parts of the county.
I’ve thought of nearly every possible scenario. There is no farming or livestock development that has sprung up in the area. The only difference that sprung up around the time flies started popping up is the change in trash collection.
We didn’t have the fly problem before when households used whatever container they could get their hands on but it was picked up twice a week. ...
...The only difference that sprung up around the time flies started popping up is the change in trash collection.
You just listed two differences. Perhaps there are others you haven't noticed.
Flies can't count or tell time and I doubt if their memory is very long, so I doubt the change in schedule is the problem.
They seek garbage or other decaying organic matter by way of smell looking for [a] food and (2) a place to lay eggs. They need a fairly large amount of crap (literally) for their eggs to hatch & develop, and time to mature- almost 2 weeks. That speaks against the once weekly schedule as a reason for the population growth.
Maybe people are more careless in keeping the "official" trash cans clean than when you supplied your own? Maybe less use of seal-able trash bags now?... Maybe the automated collection process is leaving some organic material behind which does sit for two weeks- time enough for maggots to turn in to adults?
If the problem is real (not just your imagination with no quantifiable data) and general (true on all blocks and not just yours) then examining the trash bin or collection process is called for. If the problem is "local" (just your block) then maybe some new dog/cat/raccoon & poor clean-up situation exists, or maybe someone is now inefficiently composting (temp not getting high enough to kill biotics).
Here on the coast we went from 2 day trash pick up to the 1 day huge provided trash and recycle bins they gave everyone to use years ago. Sometimes it is 2 weeks before we wheel the can out to the curb because it isn't full.
We have seen absolutely no increase in bugs or flies. Lids keep bugs out. We put a big stone on it to keep raccoons out, here. Can't smell the garbage in the cans. There is no trash laying out on the ground drawing bugs and animals because people just threw the plastic bags out on the curb if they didn't have enough garbage cans before.
In the recycle bin of course you do not use garbage bags. In the regular garbage you use tied garbage bags etc. so maybe you need to rinse out the cans etc that you put in the recycle so they don't draw them to your house.
As someone also said....maybe someone is not cleaning up after their dogs or another possiblility is leaving leftovers or food out for the feral cats or wildlife in your neighborhood and the pan always has rotting food in it.
Do you have a home owners association? Might mention it at a meeting to prompt others to handle their trash appropriately.
I have never lived anywhere where they picked up the trash more often than once per week. As someone else pointed out, the life cycle of the fly is more than a week long, so once a week is often enough to pick up the trash.
Whatever is going on has little or nothing to do with the trash pickup. People aren't tying up their trash and that attracts adult flies, or there is goop in the bottom of the cans and people aren't closing the lids, or someone in the neighborhood isn't picking up the dog poop out of their yard, or all of the above.
But whatever it is, it isn't because they've gone to a once per week schedule. Having a can sit around for a week with unconfined garbage (eg not bagged and tied) might ATTRACT more adult flies, but it isn't going to be there long enough to allow them to actually BREED. They are breeding elsewhere. If people tie their garbage up and make sure the lid is closed on the can, you wouldn't see the adult flies around the cans either.
Your county website suggests double bagging items with strong odors before putting them in the trash containers.
You can't control your neighbors, but if our cans were attracting flies, we would wash the containers and spray with insect repellent.
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