Ever opened your trash can and immediately regretted it? If you have ever seen small creatures squirming through your garbage, you were probably dealing with maggots. While they look horrifying, they are simply fly larvae. They often appear when flies discover food waste inside a trash bin and decide it is the perfect place to lay their eggs.

Flies are especially attracted to rotting meat, spoiled fruit, greasy food scraps, and other decomposing materials. They can lay eggs directly on the waste, and those eggs may hatch into maggots surprisingly quickly. Within a short time, your trash can can become a breeding ground filled with larvae.

Warm, damp conditions make the problem worse. During hot weather, the contents of a garbage bin can heat up rapidly, creating ideal conditions for fly eggs to hatch and larvae to develop. Strong odors from decomposing food can also attract more flies, turning an ordinary trash can into an unpleasant nursery for future insects.