You can throw food in covered worm bins, or you can bury the food in your compost pile and have a farm cat that likes to sleep near the bin. Both work pretty well.
Not worth the risk, imo. The second order headache from that is having neighbors complain about your pile.
I think the best way to handle foods is to let it ferment Bokashi style, and then dump everything into the compost. It speeds up the decomposition without attracting rats. I also like to make weed tea with some EM, molasses, and water and dump that into the compost after a couple weeks.
It’s not beautiful, but it’s how the heap loves it.
My god, it’s all so satisfying. I once started a pile on top of a 3 ft stash of brush that was being an eyesore for three years, seeded with a heap of ugly smelly weeds and some earthworms. I only composted over a third of the brush to A/B test the results and within 8 months you could see a bald spot where the brush dissolved under the compost.
You’re doing something wrong if your worm bin or compost pile starts to smell enough for your neighbors to notice. (namely, you probably need more carbon to cover it with for the amount of stanky material that is present, or it is anaerobic, or too wet, or too dry.)
I live in a duplex with a backyard and have 100s of gallons of worm bin that don’t bother anyone’s noses.
Ah, I meant you don’t want neighbors complaining about rats coming around because of your pile. The weed tea stuff does stink. Some people say aerate but it’s tolerable and quickly gets buried.
