Bears have already been in my compost, how do I make them go away?
1. Cease adding bear attracting foods to your bin and top off the bin with brown carbon materials.
2. Check your home and yard to avoid becoming an easy food source for bears. Bears are attracted to bird feeders, improperly stored garbage or recycling with food residue, fruit trees with fresh or rotting fruit, pet food kept outdoors, uncleaned barbecues, fresh grass clippings.
-Do not put out your garbage until the morning of pickup.
-Freeze odorous foods (such as meat, skin, bones, seafood) until morning of pickup.
-Keep your garbage container clean.
-Properly secure food in trash bags to restrict odors.
3. Empty the existing compost and dig it deep into a garden.
4. Start again and ensure that whenever “greens” (nitrogen-based material) are added, they are buried under a layer of “browns” (carbon-based material).

If you know bears regularly explore your neighborhood, do not compost bear attracting foods like meat, fish, eggs, whole or rotten fruits, grains, oils.

Harvest your fruit trees immediately, or just before the fruit ripens. Pick up fallen fruit immediately. You can compost 1 or 2 fruits by burying them deep into your pile, covering them with carbon-rich material. Use pit or trench composting to deal with greater numbers of fruit by digging a deep hole in your garden and burying the fruit under no less than 12 inches - 18 inches of soil, where it will compost underground.

Show All Answers

1. Why does my compost smell bad? How do I fix it?
2. Why is my pile taking forever to compost?
3. How do I keep rodents out of my pile?
4. How do I avoid bears in my pile?
5. Bears have already been in my compost, how do I make them go away?
6. Are flies in my compost pile good or bad?
7. Is it okay to put diseased plants, invasive weeds or weed seeds in my compost pile?
8. How can I compost weed seeds, diseased plants and invasive weeds with rhizomatous root systems?
9. Can I make a fertilizer out of weeds?
10. How do I know when the compost is finished?
11. Can I add grass or plants that have been treated with herbicides or pesticides to my pile?
12. What kind of animal manure is good for composting?
13. Why do my eggshells take forever to compost?
14. How do I compost my food scraps during the winter when my pile is frozen solid?