Iiiiccckkk. I totally messed up w/ the compost and didn't add enough dry matter. I have a disgusting smelly mess to deal with. What can I do with it? The only thing I can think of is to bury it. Will that ruin the soil where I bury it? Will it decompose there? I am afraid of my dogs digging it up so I will have to get creative if I do bury it. Help!

At this point, we compost mainly as an alternative to throwing our kitchen waste in the trash. So - I have a different pattern of composting. Lots of "wet" matter goes in consistently. Every couple of weeks, I rake up some leaves and dirt, toss it in, and turn it. Any smell that's built up is gone pretty quickly. So - you should be fine just adding more and more dry matter and turning it over time. It will likely take a bit longer to get usable compost out of what you got, but you should have no problem restoring a good balance.

At this point, we compost mainly as an alternative to throwing our kitchen waste in the trash. So - I have a different pattern of composting. Lots of "wet" matter goes in consistently. Every couple of weeks, I rake up some leaves and dirt, toss it in, and turn it. Any smell that's built up is gone pretty quickly. So - you should be fine just adding more and more dry matter and turning it over time. It will likely take a bit longer to get usable compost out of what you got, but you should have no problem restoring a good balance.

same here and what she said :)

:ditto:

Even if it has wormy maggot looking things in it? (Definitely not the compost worm variety--very yucky looking things).

Hmmm... you're not putting meat products or fats in there, are you?
Or, there is a type of grain worms that look like maggots...

In general, organisms that move into a compost bin fulfill their role and move on after the compost is fully composted and there's no more food that the particular organism feeds on and converts to compost. So - even if there is something yucky living in there, if you restore the balance, they should just move on or die off...

But maybe somebody else has dealt more specifically with this...

Hmmm... you're not putting meat products or fats in there, are you?
Or, there is a type of grain worms that look like maggots...

In general, organisms that move into a compost bin fulfill their role and move on after the compost is fully composted and there's no more food that the particular organism feeds on and converts to compost. So - even if there is something yucky living in there, if you restore the balance, they should just move on or die off...

But maybe somebody else has dealt more specifically with this...

No fats or meats. We are very careful about that. I will just try to restore the balance and see what happens. It can't get worse, lol. I added shredded newspaper today and am going to find some dry leaves somewhere. I didn't think about dirt so will do that also.
Thanks so much.

Two words: Ranch dressing.

Ha ha! Just kidding!