My wife and I have been complaining about how our trash cans keep getting infested with creepy crawlies that that build nests in the wheels out of the plant debris nearby. I had no idea how go best go about fixing this, so I just did it. I bought ten of these 16x16" paver stones, dug down a little, and used that big ass wood beam thing in the photo as a sort of leveler. It's actually blacktop about 4" down, so compaction should be minimal. Once I had them flush and evenly spaced, I backfilled around the edges so they stay flush and not shift too much. Then I hosed the area down a few times and added more backfill anywhere that settled or had gaps remaining.
We are redoing the landscaping at the house next year, so this won't be permanent, but for now it should help keep the area free of debris, and be less appealing to bugs.
Just the same ol dirt! You can see some of it piled off to the side I need to figure out somewhere to relocate it so it's less moundy over there.