Bugs in the split wood during winter

Some people say that they get bugs when wood is indoors but we have not seen much of them. I would imagine of you store a lot of bug infested wood that you may have a problem but we only store about 4 days worth of wood at a time indoors.

If the bugs froze to death in the wood we wouldn't have any bugs. There's no difference in the woods or at our houses except moisture content. I've had spiders, spider sacks, and other bug sacks on wood I've brought in but just toss it into the fire first, not giving it a chance to hatch out. I'm sure some bugs freeze but not all.

fv

JByrd said:

Do the bugs freeze when the air temps are below freezing for many days? The wood has to be frozen at that point.

If frozen, when the temps rise above freezing, do the bugs thaw and come to life?

Click to expand...

Definitely most of the bugs that would be in your wood stacks have a way of surviving the winter, or there wouldn't be any of them around next summer. Some survive as eggs, larvae, or pupae (like the 'worms' and 'grubs' you see under the bark) and those might become active when you warm up the wood, but they probably aren't going to leave the wood because they aren't very mobile. Other bugs survive as adults, and many of those become active as soon as they warm up. Carpenter Ants are one example of a bug that survives as an adult and moves around any time it warms up. Spiders, ants, a few beetles, and some moths are some of the bugs that overwinter as adults and can become active when you move wood into the house. I store my wood uncovered out in a field but I don't get very many bugs in the house during the winter. I store a few days worth of wood in the house so the bugs have time to warm up and infest the house, but it never happens. I have seen two spiders and a moth this winter that I think came in with the firewood.

Bugs don't carry bottles of Evian so they need to get their moisture from their surroundings. Well laid up dry firewood should be relatively free of bugs. In decades of burning I could probably count on one hand the number of bugs I've seen come in with the wood.

LLigetfa said:

Bugs don't carry bottles of Evian so they need to get their moisture from their surroundings. Well laid up dry firewood should be relatively free of bugs. In decades of burning I could probably count on one hand the number of bugs I've seen come in with the wood.

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more, some times when I split wood there will be a bad spot in the log and a lot of ants in it, after it is split it dries out and the ants are gone.

LLigetfa & oldspark +1

Cave2k said:

LLigetfa & oldspark +1

Click to expand...

+1 here too.

My mate, who bought some unseasoned wood in a couple of months ago left it indoors for a few days to "dry out" then found a huge hornet flying round his lounge.

Another reason for using well seasoned wood...... ;-)

Bugs will go into dormancy when the wood is not properly dried however if the wood is properly dried the bugs will leave or die. Because our wood is dried 2 years the bugs are all gone and we have no bug problem anymore. I keep about a half face in the house at a time and haven't seen a bug in years.

Good luck
Pete

oldspark said:

LLigetfa said:

Bugs don't carry bottles of Evian so they need to get their moisture from their surroundings. Well laid up dry firewood should be relatively free of bugs. In decades of burning I could probably count on one hand the number of bugs I've seen come in with the wood.

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more, some times when I split wood there will be a bad spot in the log and a lot of ants in it, after it is split it dries out and the ants are gone.

Click to expand...

Well I am in the NYC metro are so bugs here dont drink Evian they drink 12 dollar bottles of Perrier from Starbucks.

I'm not certain what they are but if we bring wood in the house without putting it into the stove, we will get little brown millers flying about. Therefore, we'll not bring extra wood into the house. We have, when we used to bring wood in early, seen many bugs in the wood. No, the wood was not wet but there were bugs nonetheless. Why take chances?

Backwoods Savage said:

I'm not certain what they are but if we bring wood in the house without putting it into the stove, we will get little brown millers flying about. Therefore, we'll not bring extra wood into the house. We have, when we used to bring wood in early, seen many bugs in the wood. No, the wood was not wet but there were bugs nonetheless. Why take chances?

Click to expand...

30 years and no bugs so unless something changes it aint happening here, did yu get that snow BWS?

Just enough to cover the ground here. How about out there? Oh, the wind was nothing like predicted either.

Backwoods Savage said:

Just enough to cover the ground here. How about out there? Oh, the wind was nothing like predicted either.

Click to expand...

We missed it went north, bare ground and in the 50's by Thursday.

We get wasps sometimes. I try to only bring in the wood I'm burning that day. Also seen some unidentified grubs in the wood bucket a couple of times.

I've never seen any bugs . . . then again I also have seasoned my wood for two years . . . and only bring in enough wood for 24 hours or so of burning.