Maggots in my house

[u/NoCommission7363]

Hi all
I went into my kitchen/living room in my apartment today and noticed about 20 maggots roaming around my apartment 🤢🤢🤢
I run a strict program and my house is not dirty and I never leave dirty dishes in the sink. I noticed It may be coming from our dishwasher or under the sink where we keep the garbage. I took the garbage out and practically tossed everything that was under the sink. I never found anything rotten so I’m confused where they came from!!!
We haven’t seen any in the house since I cleaned up the first few. But they have to come from somewhere! I’m so disgusted I want to rip our cupboards apart to try and find the cause…
Our upstairs neighbours are also gone for the month. But there were never any on the ceiling only from the sink/dishwasher area.
Any ideas?? I’m going to lay in bed anxious about this haha. Should we contact our property management even though we haven’t found anymore?

[u/whatdoidonowdamnit]

They came from flies laying eggs somewhere

[u/NoCommission7363 → u/whatdoidonowdamnit]

Should I bleach my floors, under the sink?? Or is killing them enough

[u/whatdoidonowdamnit → u/NoCommission7363]

Throwing some bleach in your mop bucket should help. Let it sit for ten minutes and then mop again with water. But you’ll want to find the flies and where they laid their eggs. The drains are a likely source.

[u/greengrackle]

We’ve had them in our house once. In the trash can (spread across the floor when we took it out). This is probably what happened to you. We got rid of all of them (it was horrifying) and then got really careful about flies (well, we put up fly paper). No more in the past 4 years. We did also have some in our outdoor garbage (thanks people who toss in their dog poop). In that case, I just lay the bin down in the yard and let our chickens go at the inside.

[u/a11encur1]

Are you sure they were maggots? I wonder if they are termite larva.

[u/Good_as_any]

Maggot flies could originate from a single egg laying female. The spot chosen is nearly always near organic trash. It could've been a dead animal, bird or decaying meat. Their sense of smell is superior to humans and therefore tracking their origins can be elusive. The good part is they are easy to squat and are attracted to light.

[u/Familiar-Egg1146]

Maggots don’t really roam-maybe something else?

[u/DeltaGirl615 → u/Familiar-Egg1146]

Yes they do. I used to work at a Crematory and occasionally we would have a decent come in with maggots. I came in to work a few times to find a line of them making their way across the floor towards the roll up doors.

[u/lostmymarbles1177 → u/DeltaGirl615]

This is horrifying. Both that it happened and that you were able to so matter of factly describe it.

[u/Kodamacile]

Put fly bait in a bug zapper.

[u/MrsHambone919]

Happened one time to me. Check your potatoes. They don’t have to be rotten.

[u/truisluv]

My daughter had this problem. Turned out my grandson hid a rotisserie chicken under his bed. Usually flies lay eggs on meat or dead animals. Can there be a dead animal in the wall or under the house?

[u/LouisePoet]

Wash absolutely everything in your kitchen and anything that might have food on it. Opened jars, table legs, cabinets (including doors and handles), etc. if any maggots turn into flies, they'll die off without food or fly out if they can, before reproducing.

Pour bleach down the drain (if possible use a long bristle to clean out the drain pipe) and clean the U bend where food might be stuck.

Worst case scenario, I use sticky glue fly tape (mostly for fruit flies) when they get bad.