Late Night Surprise in the Apartment

Recycling is a big deal in Germany.  When I go to throw something away, I have to make sure to put it in the right bin.  There are three different types of recycling: plastic, paper, and biodegradable things, like foods leftovers and teabags.  As you can imagine, the biodegradable bin can attract flies and bugs before too long.  Thankfully there is a large bio bin outside that I can dump the smaller bin into.  Then the flies can buzz around that to their hearts' content.  The bio bin gets picked up and dumped by the city about once every three or four weeks.  By the last week, it's a stinky mess with the insides covered in writhing white maggots.  It's gross.  However, I'm glad that there is a large bin to dump the smaller bio bin in and that it's far away from the house.  However, flies do still get into the house.  Mostly I've seen tiny fruit flies, but there are also larger black flies.  I don't like them, and I wish I could find a way to get rid of them all.  I was doing my best (or so I thought) to keep the bio bin inside fairly empty and rinsed clean.  However, I learned last week that nature has a way of getting into things.

On Friday night the 13th, I went into the kitchen at about ten-thirty to get some water before going to bed.  I felt something under my foot and looked down.  It was a maggot.  In the house.  And next to it was another maggot.  And another.  And another.  In fact, the entire floor was covered in them.  Not just a few here and there.  COVERED.  And they all were wriggling toward the cabinet under the sink where we keep the bio bin.  I put on shoes and tiptoed to the sink and opened the cabinet.  More maggots in there and in the bio bin.  In fact, if I held still, I could hear the maggots wriggling and rustling around in the trash bags and supplies under the sink.  Looking at maggots makes me feel like I want to itch my skin off, but hearing them and not being able to see them makes me feel like I want to purify everything with fire.  

I woke up A, told her what had happened, and then we stood in the kitchen doorway and stared in silence at the mess, wondering what to do.  We thought about vacuuming but weren't sure that would kill the maggots.  We didn't want them to be alive, crawling around inside the vacuum.  We ended up sweeping the maggots up with a broom and dustpan and dumping them out the back door.  I put on gloves, swept, and moved the bio bin and everything under the sink outside.  A googled how to get rid of maggots and read that boiling water, vinegar, and/or salt kills them.  So we boiled water, poured that all over the ground outside and on the doorway and into the un-recycling trash bin and bio bin (there were maggots inside those too).  We didn't have vinegar handy at the moment, so we sprinkled salt everywhere.  On the ground, on the doorstep, on the kitchen floor.  It was like we were warding off paranormal beings.  We finished at about eleven-thirty.  It had only been an hour, not too long all things considered, but it was plenty long enough for me.  

The next morning, I did breakfast while A deep cleaned the kitchen.  She vacuumed, mopped, and scrubbed everything.  She did a really good job.  I think that's the cleanest the kitchen's been in years.  

Now we appear to be maggot free.  We're making sure to empty out the bio bin even more often and keep it rinsed and clean.  We're making sure to kill flies and keep windows closed.  We're keeping all non-refrigerated food sealed in airtight containers.  

What still confuses me is how fast it all happened.  A and I had been in the kitchen like forty-five minutes before ten-thirty, and the kitchen appeared maggot free.  Then forty-five minutes later, Absolute Grossness descended.  I think fly eggs must have all hatched at once or something, but still, it was shockingly fast.

UPDATE: I just got word from the other two interns (whose initials are also A and A) that a similar thing happened this morning (7/19/18) in another kitchen in the house but on a smaller scale.  They found some maggots in containers.  Ugh.  It's so gross.  I'm all for recycling, but isn't there a way to do it that doesn't involve maggots inside your living/eating quarters?