Ants!!

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akennyd

Member
Aug 19, 2009
148
North Carolina
I've been storing a small amount of wood in the house by the wood stove. Was outside and grabbed a few pieces of wood on the way in just for the heck of it. These were going staight into the stove so I put them down next to the stove door. When I did part of the bark fell off one of the peices of wood and there on the backside of the bark is a group of at least 200 to 300 medium sized black ants!! They were still moving slow from the cold so I quickly helped them warm up...a lot!! :coolsmirk:

So glad I just missed bringing them into the house and letting them warm up completely as they were already starting to move around the short time they were in...I had to chase a few of them down. I would have had a few hundred ants roaming around...

Anybody ever experienced this before? I did a quick search but didn't see anything...
 
What kind of wood was it? Was it cut as dead standing or live wood? How was it stored? I have lots of wood that I have ants come pouring out of when I cut and split but I have yet to see any want anything to do w/ the wood once it is stacked and drying. Maybe your climate (down south from me) makes a difference?

pen
 
It was pine. It was alive when I cut it and split it summer/fall last year (2009). The ants moved in after the split had dryed and the bark began to separate from the wood, probably trying to hide from the cold.
 
akennyd said:
It was pine. It was alive when I cut it and split it summer/fall last year (2009). The ants moved in after the split had dryed and the bark began to separate from the wood, probably trying to hide from the cold.


this is why i do not store wood inside the house any more.
or inside the garage till its cold out.
all wood goes from outside to in the stove. if it does not fit, it goes back outside till there is more room in the stove for more wood.

the last thing i want is a bunch of ants making a colony in my home.
 
AGREED! No wood stays in my house. I used to keep the wood fo rhte next load inside, not naymore, I decided thats too much of a chance for bugs to get in. It goes outside straight into the fireplace. Far too much risk of ants/termintes/whatnot... They can be annoying (stinkbugs) or expensive!! (termites).

I am not burning infested wood either, these are just the things that find their way in as it is being seasoned.
 
When I moved my wood from outside to the inside storage shed, I found spiders the size of Buicks. Disgusting.
 
Yesterday I cut a large cedar down and when splitting the piece closest to the stump found a LARGE calony of big black ants inside. I couldn't believe it, I thought bugs hated cedar. There were also some green spotted things in there with them, no idea what they were.
 
maverick06 said:
AGREED! No wood stays in my house. I used to keep the wood fo rhte next load inside, not naymore, I decided thats too much of a chance for bugs to get in. It goes outside straight into the fireplace. Far too much risk of ants/termintes/whatnot... They can be annoying (stinkbugs) or expensive!! (termites).

I am not burning infested wood either, these are just the things that find their way in as it is being seasoned.

I'm an exterminator, and I've split a lot of wood that has had ants in it . Of course I have the proper means of taking care of them right away. However the termites would be the last thing you would have to worry about. They would die very quickly after being brought into the house as they must live in the ground they have to build mud tunnels in the wood to keep their bodies a certain moisture level. The queen is the only reproductive and she lives in the ground.
 
timlynne said:
maverick06 said:
AGREED! No wood stays in my house. I used to keep the wood fo rhte next load inside, not naymore, I decided thats too much of a chance for bugs to get in. It goes outside straight into the fireplace. Far too much risk of ants/termintes/whatnot... They can be annoying (stinkbugs) or expensive!! (termites).

I am not burning infested wood either, these are just the things that find their way in as it is being seasoned.

I'm an exterminator, and I've split a lot of wood that has had ants in it . Of course I have the proper means of taking care of them right away. However the termites would be the last thing you would have to worry about. They would die very quickly after being brought into the house as they must live in the ground they have to build mud tunnels in the wood to keep their bodies a certain moisture level. The queen is the only reproductive and she lives in the ground.


what about carpenter ants?
 
I store about 3days worth inside. However the wood I bring in is mostly bark free and solid. I've mostly subsribed to the theory that bugs only live in live or wet wood and once it is dried they move out. Maybe not always the case though. Once in a while I get a bug or 2 but I just spray them when I see them. For the most part I don't think they want to abandon their home.
 
par0thead151 said:
timlynne said:
maverick06 said:
AGREED! No wood stays in my house. I used to keep the wood fo rhte next load inside, not naymore, I decided thats too much of a chance for bugs to get in. It goes outside straight into the fireplace. Far too much risk of ants/termintes/whatnot... They can be annoying (stinkbugs) or expensive!! (termites).

I am not burning infested wood either, these are just the things that find their way in as it is being seasoned.

I'm an exterminator, and I've split a lot of wood that has had ants in it . Of course I have the proper means of taking care of them right away. However the termites would be the last thing you would have to worry about. They would die very quickly after being brought into the house as they must live in the ground they have to build mud tunnels in the wood to keep their bodies a certain moisture level. The queen is the only reproductive and she lives in the ground.


what about carpenter ants?

Even if you brought carpenter ants into your home, they would soon leave unless you had food for them (ie, a leaking roof w/ wet/rotting wood, a leaking toilet or sink w/ wet and rotting wood, etc)

pen
 
Kenny, most of us have found ants and other insects in the wood and that also is why I hate wood inside the house unless it is in the stove. My wife does bring in enough wood for the next fire after we stock up for the night but I still don't like it.

For sure if we find any, we do the same as you did and those ants find out really quick that their names are not Shadrach, Meshack or Aded-Nego!
 
Ants - bah! We have fun when I get wasps in the house this way. Under the bark, just looking to avoid the cold, and then saved - by me. They're usually not very active and not very quick, but still a bit of a scare. Try and knock them off outside = bird food. :)
 
Whenever I find questionable insects in a new split I let the chickens have a treat. They leave no bug un-eaten!
 
Thanks to all!!

I'm beginning to rethink my practice of bringing in as much wood at one time as I can in my wood tote. If I had of missed those ants, that would have been a mess, just chasing all them varmints down. I've noticed a variety of other bugs "hanging out" in my splits also. Think I will start taking the tote back out on the porch after loading the stove...

Backwoods- :) There was no Lord there to protect them in my fire!!!

Merry Christmas to all!!
 
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