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I had the same problem splitting some of
The maple I just cut! I just split it and smacked all the ants off and figured its still good for burning regardless of the ants infestation!
Any ants I see while I am splitting don't have much time left on this earth. I hit them with wasp spray that I get in three packs at Sam's club because that is what I usually have on hand. They don't have any chance of moving into any one of the few trees I have on my property.
This year I had less then any other year, maybe three or four rounds with ants and I am thinking it is because all my wood came from storm damage and not rounds some tree company left behind in someone's yard.
I've messed up many a sleepy carpenter ant colony, 'specially in the black cherry around here, serious ant headquarters in that cherry. Ain't no problem unless you're splitting real close to your house.
I hit their channel with a little lighter fluid and burn it a bit until they fry. My stacks are close to the house and I don't want them to get a chance to find my foundation.
I don't wast a lot of time or money on bug killer. With ants, I split the ant-punk rounds last, get most of the punk off. If it's a big colony,I toss the splits in an inhospitable spot and get 'em later. Don't wan't raid in my wood-fired pizza in 3 years
We have tons of paper wasps, I flick the new nests that are in a bad spot now in the spring as a solitary queen builds them, and they build somewhere else and police my garden. Never been stung by those.
Yellow jackets and european hornets are a whole different ball game. I tend to get my pyro on
I split and process generally in my driveway because its cement so I spray. Im too close to the house and my garage. If its bad I'll spray the wood but usually just a perimeter around the splitter. Split the buggy stuff last. Also a seperate pile of wood for the really infested stuff. That gets burned in the outdoor fireplace(cherry and apple and hickory) If I run out of seasoned wood I will use the infested wood but I always keep it seperate and away from building structures.
If I was processing away from buildings like out in the woods, I might just knock the splits together and toss the wood off to the side of my work area.
I get them in maple a lot too, I just toss the infested splits to the side and put them in the stacks later, they leave pretty soon after you toss the splits aside. Would be fun to burn em though.
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