stacking wood against/near your home

They're looking for water! Since I am careful to make sure there is no standing water around the house for the skeeters to breed in, that was the next closest source for them. It freaked us out, but is apparently common for carpenter ants. Never seen them in the toilet, though...

Chris

Last I knew all those bugs had legs and were capable of finding your house whether it had a wood pile or not.

Who keeps termite infested wood ? I don't even allow it in my stacks and keep my stacks off the ground.

In the Winter the bugs are either dormant, or extremely slow to move. Most bugs I come across are not IN the wood but on it. They generally fall off with very little persuasion. Majority of those would not survive in the house. They might freak someone out as they try to find a way back out.


I like to use a long stack as a wind break about ten feet away from the North side of the house. This works for me because the street is on the South side. It's not my only North wind break, but I almost never have to shovel snow along side it. (Just at one end where it all went around it)

If I stacked my firewood 50 ft., or even 30 ft. away my house (and the garage and guest/in-law house), it would either be in my neighbor's yard (and less than 30 ft. from their house) or in the street. I stack about 12 ft. from the garage, next to a block wall. Unfortunately, I have a couple piles of lumber (not firewood) stacked right next to the garage / guest house (on blocks off the ground). No other choice.

Peace,
- Sequoia

This is only my second year in my house and last year i had some wood within 10ft of the house, and I had some wood that I stacked in the middle of the winter (down tree) that I put on pallets next to my garage (cinder block walls)

I waited a little too long and by spring, I had mice and chip monks everywhere, and eventually had a big ole wood chuck take up camp under my pallets and he dug under the foundation sooo not good.

luckily I spotted it early and re organized all my wood about 40ft from the house and covered up his hole and he has not been back yet.

I never liked the idea of wood near the house for the bugs, but now its also for the big critters. I plan on make a wood pile (1.5 cord) on crushed stone up against the garage and this will only be filled once a few frosts have come through, and then I will hopefully be empty before spring.

PunKid8888 said:

I waited a little too long and by spring, I had mice and chip monks everywhere, and eventually had a big ole wood chuck take up camp under my pallets and he dug under the foundation sooo not good.

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Are chip Monks rodents in brown robes?

TreePapa said:

PunKid8888 said:

I waited a little too long and by spring, I had mice and chip monks everywhere, and eventually had a big ole wood chuck take up camp under my pallets and he dug under the foundation sooo not good.

Click to expand...

Are chip Monks rodents in brown robes?

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LOL . . .

PunKid8888 said:

This is only my second year in my house and last year i had some wood within 10ft of the house, and I had some wood that I stacked in the middle of the winter (down tree) that I put on pallets next to my garage (cinder block walls)

I waited a little too long and by spring, I had mice and chip monks everywhere, and eventually had a big ole wood chuck take up camp under my pallets and he dug under the foundation sooo not good.

luckily I spotted it early and re organized all my wood about 40ft from the house and covered up his hole and he has not been back yet.

I never liked the idea of wood near the house for the bugs, but now its also for the big critters. I plan on make a wood pile (1.5 cord) on crushed stone up against the garage and this will only be filled once a few frosts have come through, and then I will hopefully be empty before spring.

Click to expand...

4 cats = no mice and no chipmunks at my place . . . even though I kind of like the chipmunks

They are very Ninja like tooo

TreePapa said:

PunKid8888 said:

I had mice and chip monks everywhere

Click to expand...

Are chip Monks rodents in brown robes?

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Yes, and they eat chips religiously.

I would not do it because of Carpenter Ant's. They don't eat the wood, they nest in it. Once their nest is build, they go for sugar and food. I stack my wood 100 ft away and I still have to spray my entire house parameter to keep them out. I live in a very wooded area but still see ants in my piles that I have delivered. If you bring their home (nesting) that close to your house, it makes it that much rewarding for those ants as they don't have to travel as far and will find a way in and worst case, start nesting in your home.

If you do this, i would spray a barrier around your entire foundation and door ways three or four times a year.

I have a covered patio right next to my house that I filled with wood last spring and never had a problem with ants/rodents/etc. That part of the house is concrete patio up against a cinder block wall. I was and still am worried about any type of animal getting in there. I was happy to see that through last winter nothing made a home there. This spring I started all over again and have aprox 4 cords there now. I put down some pellet "home defense" as precaution, but still monitor for bugs. I have a dog that will take care of the little furry ones, I'm more concerned about the 6+ legged tiny ones.

That said, I may start stacking next years wood on pallets further away and cover with a tarp.

I'll share a story about Carpenter Ants. This was long before cutting wood or having wood delivered. When we cleared the lot for our constuction, we must have displaced some ant nests or what ever. The first spring after moving into our house, we had 100's of carpenter ants in our house. Most of them concentrated in the kitchen area. The cabinets where you have dry foods and sugar are where we found most.

We had a terminator come in and inspect. He said the ants come in for food. In my case, just a spray throughout the house to kill them worked. The chemical in which they eat slowly kills them. If they ant makes it back to his nest and dies, then other ants eat their deceased friend and the death cycle just multiples. He also told me stories about ants nesting in interior walls or in floor joists. Pretty scaring thinking about 1000's of ants nesting inside your house.

From that day, I always spray the exterior and it controls them. For years I hired a terminator to spray. I noticed Bayer came out with a spray and I tried it. Works just as well and cost about 1/5 of what I paid the terminator.

Carpenter ants can't exactly go to the well for water and don't carry canteens. They like to make their nests where there is moisture so if you have a moisture problem you could very well also have an ant problem. Ants that have nests in your firewood will move out if/when the wood dries. Don't store green wood near or in the house and maintain your house so that there are no moisture problems.

Ortho makes a great product for insect control. Don't remember the name but it comes in a red bag. 20lbs I think. Around $14. A perimeter type granular product. I apply it every spring and have eliminated fleas,ants and spiders. A few weeks ago I actually had a mass of ants on my wood pile so I grabbed a cup full of this stuff ,pulled back the tarp and sprinkled some. No more ants. Works well.

definiteLEE said:

Ortho makes a great product for insect control. Don't remember the name but it comes in a red bag. 20lbs I think. Around $14. A perimeter type granular product. I apply it every spring and have eliminated fleas,ants and spiders. A few weeks ago I actually had a mass of ants on my wood pile so I grabbed a cup full of this stuff ,pulled back the tarp and sprinkled some. No more ants. Works well.

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yes I use the same stuff I think it's called Ortho MAX and it works well. We live near a river and have very sandy soil and some real big ant hills all thru out the yard . Every spring and again in mid summer I lay a 6 wide swath of the stuff around the house in fact we have 8' landscaping bricks all around the foundation to provide a place where the ants would have to cross and where I put down the ant killer . I even used a spreader to put the stuff down all around the yard.

Even with these chemicals I would try to move the wood away from the house only bringing it up when the weather gets cold and drives them out.
Even if you keep them out for years one day they will get in. I have a buddy who didn't know he has then when he stsrted to remodel a room found he had a huge and 1/2 the stud walls were gone