How to trap bugs from the woodpile once inside???

[Swedishchef]

Hey guys

This year will be the first year that I store some wood indoors. I have a shed outside I normally use but decided that I am tired of running outside everytime I need a big load of wood that will last 2-3 days at a time. Hence, this winter, 2 cords are coming inside!

Question: how do I, can I, trap the bugs that will be in the wood once I bring it inside?? Any ideas or am I crazy?? Or will the bugs en up running me out of my house?

Thanks in advance


Andrew

 

[Wood Duck]

One thing you might try it to wait until cold eather to move the wood. That way at least the normal sorts of bugs and spiders that are just hiding among the splits, not burrowing into the wood, will fall off more easily when you move the wood. Maybe you can knock each split off another one to dislodge bugs. The bugs that burrow into wood or really lodge under bark or in a crack in the wood will be coming into the house. I'd expect them to wake up inside and crawl around the place. I don't think there is a way to trap them. You could spray, but it would take a lot of spray and I wouldn't want that inside the house. I'd start with some quantity of wood a lot smaller than two cords. That way if the bugs are more than you bargained for, you won't have to wait so long until the wood is used up.

 

[n3pro]

The only way I would know is put each piece in a plastic bag but that is major $$$ and a PITA. If there is critters in the wood and it get warm they become active and looking for food - which would be your house.

Once it gets cold and stays cold I move about a weeks worth on the back deck but rarely have more they a days worth inside.

 

[quercus_kelloggii]

I had some white fir that had bees in it, buried in worm holes. When the wood was inside and it warmed up inside, the bees "came alive" and would fly around. I got stung by one actually! No more white fir w/ worm holes! Didn't like how it burned (too fast) but it was all I had at the time.

Now I stack it on the front by the door, but outside. Bring it in as I need it. Not so bad that way.

 

[bren582]

I don't store wood in the house but I do keep a cord of stacked wood in my attached garage. I do a couple of things to minimize bugs getting into the garage and house:

1 - Only clean splits free of bark makes it inside for storage.
2 - I spray a swath of household bug killer around the perimeter of the wood pile and up the wall a few feet behind it

I've done this for 2 years running and I haven't observed any bugs in or around the pile. Last year some of one pile of wood was kinda of dirty from being outside so I lightly power washed it. let it dry for a week in the sun and moved it in.. No problems..

 

[oldspark]

My wood is stacked in single rows so it gets wind and sun shine and I never get bugs when I bring wood in the house but results may vary in different parts of the country. For the most part bugs like moist conditions but any thing can happen.

 

[Swedishchef]

Hey guys

Thanks for the replies. I guess that means there's no magical "Buy this item, all the bugs will go to it and get trapped". heh. I guess I'll have to see f or myself this winter what happens!

Thanks for the inputs!

Andrew

 

[Battenkiller]

The only bugs that worry me are the stinging kind. This year will be the 20th season of burning in my place. I used to bring about 2 full cord into the place at a time, but I was broker then and had less tools. Now I only have room for about a cord. Over all that time, I have never observed insects migrating from the wood stacks to the rest of the place. I have been stung a few times by a sleepy wasp or yellow jacket. I've brought a few crickets in, and they will keep you awake at night once they warm up. There have also been a few times when I wasn't so careful and brought in a suspicious piece that turned out to have ants in it. They stay in the stack.

Most of the ant dealings will be nests. You'll know it when they start scurrying around carrying the eggs to a new location. You'll also understand why you don't need to worry about them invading your structural woodwork. The idea that they'd march out for parts unknown and climb up my basement walls to get to the exposed sills is silly. There is plenty of perfectly wood right where they are. It'd be like displaced folks in New Jersey making a mass exodus for the Mohave Desert. Last year I had two separate ant incidents with some questionable hickory splits. On both occasions, I just picked up the offending chunk and immediately tossed it outside. The few stragglers that escaped were never seen again, probably suffered death by cremation.

You want real problems with firewood and insects? Try stacking all your wood outdoors right next to your house for a couple seasons. Ten thousand times more worrisome IMO. Wood should never be stacked next to your exterior walls except in the winter. Not only bugs, but rain runoff from your eaves getting trapped by all that wood will raise the MC well above the 30% needed for fungus to take over and rot your structure. Plus, your wood will never dry properly.

 

[BroadCove]

I keep about a cord on hand in the basement and have never had problems with bugs. My only precautions: I only bring down dry/seasoned wood, and only after the weather turns cold (30s at night). I'm in Maine, you're in Quebec, so I'm guessing you'll have similar results. My experience is that bugs don't really like dry/seasoned wood anyway, at least not in our neck of the woods.

 

[leaddog]

You could put sticky paper all around the wood so any bugs would get stuck but the downside is you would get BUGGED when you went to get some. Guess I'd not worry about it if the wood was dry as bugs wouldn't be to active in dry wood. They do like the wood on the bottem near the ground though.
leaddog

 

[Swedishchef]

Beatten; I certainly agree with your opinions on this matter. I am not overly concerned about ants, etc. I was just curious since I have never brought wood indoors what it would be like. LOL. I love the analogy of Ne Jersey moving to the Mojave Desert. And I think you're right: if a person stacks their wood beside their house, they are asking for problems.

Broad: Yeah, we have similar weather so I think you're right. I will be bringing my wood in later this fall, in about a month or month and a half. I moved some wood into a greenhouse earlier today (for the winter). The greenhouse turns into a wood storage shed for the winter season. Some of the wood was wet (we had downpours for the last week) and I suspect from looking at it there are some creepy friends around it. But I figure that everytime I move the wood, there's less bugs hitching a ride.

Leaddog; I will see if I can still find some of that paper. Since summer seasonal stuff is gone, I may be SOL.

Andrew

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Andrew, my feelings on the subject is that one should build a small rack and place it close to the doorway. Don't fill the rack until the weather turns cold and then you can just fill it every few days or weekly depending upon the size of the rack. That rack should have a roof if it is not placed under an existing roof, like say, a carport.

As for bugs we have experienced a few over the many years. Those bugs were mostly ants and moths. They are not welcome in this house for sure. We do (or my wife does) bring wood inside the house overnight and place on our oversized hearth so that in the morning we just grab wood and put into stove. Other than that, we have a carport and I stack wood on the porch inside the carport. It works very nicely because we just open our door and in 2 steps we can grab wood and back inside. Also the wood stacked out there serves as a good wind block during the winter months.

 

[firefighterjake]

Can't say as though I've ever seen any bugs -- creeping, crawling, flying or flitting -- around the house once heating season begins. However, the wood goes from the woodshed to my covered porch (my weekly supply) and then I take in a day's worth of wood each day and stick it in the woodbox.

 

[savageactor7]

We've kept about 3-4 days of dry seasoned wood indoors for quite awhile now. Very occasionally we'll see a lone bug but that is very rare. Up here I think mother nature hard wired those bugs so that once they go dormant it takes more than a few days of warmth to bring them out of it. I thinking it's super way colder up is Quebec so that observation should be good up there too.

2 cords indoors is too much imo...but that's only an opinion. Unless your talking about an attached unheated wood shed...then it'd be OK.

 

[Bspring]

I keep up to 2 cords in my basement and being in the south you would think I would have a lot of problems with bugs but it has not been an issue. I sprinkle the floor with Seven dust and then stack the wood.

I would like to wait until after the first frost before I bring more in for this season but I may not be able to do that.

 

[4acrefarm]

MY house is older than most of the firewood I bring in. My theory is that I have more bugs in the house than could posibly bring in.

 

[albertj03]

I usually only bring a few days worth of wood in the basement but last year I decided to bring in probably half a cord at the start of the season. The biggest problem I had was mosquitos. There weren't a lot of them but all of the sudden I started noticing one or two flying around in the basement and then in the first floor. I quickly realized they were coming from the wood and went back to smaller loads. I also had a hornet flying around the basement one day too.

The other problem I have with bringing a lot of wood in is the chipmunck droppings. I always have chipmunks making nests in my wood stacks and will find droppings and little nests. I think the droppings falls off before getting in but I hate the thought of any bacteria from the nests and droppings being circulated through the house along with the hot air from the stove.

 

[maplewood]

I have 12 cord in my basement already. A bit early for me this year - usually I'm filling my wood room in late September.
I did get a few flies this year. I usually keep one light bulb on in the basement, and keep a sticky fly catcher hanging next to the light.
I think I'll cover the wood next year after the August dry weather, and put it in in Sept / Oct after the frost starts.

A friend said he gets a 20 to 1 solution of water / bleach, and puts a light spray on his wood a day or two before he puts it in. Most bugs don't like the smell or taste of bleach.

Hope that helps!

 

[Bspring]

I have 12 cord in my basement already. A bit early for me this year - usually I'm filling my wood room in late September.
I did get a few flies this year. I usually keep one light bulb on in the basement, and keep a sticky fly catcher hanging next to the light.
I think I'll cover the wood next year after the August dry weather, and put it in in Sept / Oct after the frost starts.

A friend said he gets a 20 to 1 solution of water / bleach, and puts a light spray on his wood a day or two before he puts it in. Most bugs don't like the smell or taste of bleach.

Hope that helps!

12 Cord! :bug:

 

[mhambi]

Throw some glue traps around the pile.

Here's +/- 5 cord in my garage (which occupies 1/3 of my basement) from last year... never had extra bug problems because of it.