woodlice issue

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wesessiah

wesessiah

Burning Hunk
Aug 31, 2012
185
Lincolnton NC
i keep my stacks on the end of my concrete driveway a few feet away from from the ground. it has rained here quite a bit the past few months, and it seems like this attracts the woodlice in droves. i get a little bit of dirt splashed on the ends of my stack, and it seems like the woodlice drag dirt further in a couple splits high. i just got done restacking, and cleaning the dirt off the lower splits, but that's far too daunting to keep doing. is it feasible to shield the rear and one side of a stack to keep dirt from being splashed onto the stack? or will this inhibit proper air flow?
the center of my stack had some mold where the dirt was holding moisture in. is there something i can use to keep them away that won't be detrimental to my wood supply? thanks.
 
Bugs and mold burn just fine. So does dirt.
 
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They won't hurt a thing. Like FBF said, they burn too. I just hold off bringing wood into my house until the freeze comes, that way the bugs are dormant and my basement stays around 40 degrees all winter so they don't really pose a problem..
 
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The wood in my stacks gathers leaves that become compost after a while. I think restacking occasionally (every couple of years) really helps reduce the buildup. I don't restack just to remove the leaves, but if a stack falls and I have to restack, removing the leaves is a nice benefit.
 
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We just stack the wood and forget about it until it is needed. We do move enough for the winter into the barn every fall. I do not bring wood into the house until it is ready to go into the stove. Never heard of wood lice before.
 
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Yeah, I can't remember why I knew that...I grew up calling them Roly Polys too, or Sow Bugs...but at some point I learned the real name, and haven't a clue why that happened. :rolleyes:
 
we always referred to them as potato bugs when growing up.......don't ask me why, because I didn't see that one in the wiki description.....:rolleyes:
 
Yeah, they're called Potato Bugs some places too. Where I grew up in California, a Potato Bug was a whole different animal:

 
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fossil said:
Yeah, they're called Potato Bugs some places too. Where I grew up in California, a Potato Bug was a whole different animal:

Click to expand...

I have never seen a bug like that and I was in the pest control business for almost 30 years!!!!
 
Also called a "Jerusalem Cricket", though nobody seems to know why. I think they're mostly a west coast phenomenon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_cricket

We came across them occasionally as kids...digging & scratching around in the moist soil or upending rocks. They're freaky looking, but move pretty slowly and really pose no threat. I think a really interesting aspect of them is just how incredibly complex they are.
 
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