Dear Fellow City Dweller,
I know this will probably shock you
but if there are rats in your neighborhood, they've already been in your yard too. Composting lots of kitchen material from vegetables will mean you need lots of carbon material (browns) too so that means leaves, straw/hay, etc. to balance the pile and keep the process alive. Mixing in molasses, wet or dry, speeds the process so the material breaks down faster, becoming more palatable for the smaller creatures, rather than the large ones. By the way - rats will eat earthworms if they have the opportunity.
Ditto on the snakes. The different types are everywhere, some more than others. I have four small snakes in my yard, and have seen a large one (rat snake) in the alley behind my very urban home. The more activity in the area, the less welcome they will feel and they will become scarce. A few years ago we had a wood pile in the back yard that turned up with a rattlesnake in it...surprised the heck out of us. But once in 20 years is a pretty low incidence.
What I'm saying here is that your concerns are probably real but you should give them much less weight in your consideration of whether to compost. The risks and drawbacks are much, much less likely to come to fruition than the benefits of having your own rich soil amendment and the pleasure of knowing your are recycling the most basic of materials.
Got a dog?
Kathe
