Insects in the Firewood!

[woodburn]

Is anyone else out there concerned about bringing in wood and letting it warm by the fire? Besides the usual less harmless critters that love wood, I have definitely seen termites and carpenter ants on my property, and I definitely don't want to bring them in the house.

The woodpile is raised a good 8" at least off the ground, and I have NOT seen any signs of infestation of any sort on my wood. I am getting my stove soon, and when I bring a load in, I plan to toss it straight in the fire. I would love to keep a permanent stack by the stove for looks/ambiance, and also load up to let the wood warm/take less trips outside, but I am a little hesitant.

I am pretty sure termites go deep into the ground after the first freeze anyway, but the carpenter ants and woodboring beetles are still a concern of mine.

What do you guys do? Any other tips for keeping insects away from the pile besides keeping it up off the ground?

 

[Youngblood]

good post, i've got similar questions, i think i have powder post beetles in some of my wood and havent been bringing it in by the fire purposely b/c of that but i'd like to know of any suggestions for avoiding themother infestations in the future.

 

[DriftWood]

I carry wood in this time of year, insects are active, as needed. In the cold of winter I burn no junk clean splits with no saw dust, dirt, splinters or insects you know the stuff that doesn't make a mess or ash.

 

[eernest4]

I learned how to make my wood insect free as a secondary effect to getting rid of mold & fungus from wood left outside for 3 years. It was begining to rot but I didnt have any more wood & needed to burn it in about 2 months, so I dipped each piece in a wheelbarrow that I filled with 1 cup chlorox bleach per gallon of water.

All the bugs came floating,swimming , or scurring out of the wood , in a big hurry to clear out!

You can also use oxalic acid that comes as a powder in a box from the hardward store or lumber yard, to kill mold & fungus on wood; but I dont know how much the bugs dislike it because I have not yet used it to soak firewood in.

So, this is a sure fire way to get rid of the bugs but leaves you with wet wood that takes at least
2 hot summer months to dry out enough to burn fairly well, not burn great but only fairly well,
with a lot of crackling & not the high temps that you get from dry seasoned hardwood.

500 to 600 deg stack temp the best this wood could do for just a short time, less that 5 min. after it stops crackling & before it charcoals out with most of the burn at 400 deg.

Chlorox bleach, after it dries out, turns into table salt & I throw 1 tablespoon of table salt on my red embers after every fire to make a gas that cleans the vent pipes & makes creosole flack off
but I have a old time stove so I dont know/ wouldn't recommend this for a catlytic stove, you would need to check with the mfg to see if it would be ok or not. Same for a secondary burn combustion chamber epa stove, chech with your mfg to see.

 

[Gooserider]

If your wood is properly seasoned, you should not have many bugs in it to begin with - bugs need moisture to live, and 20-25% wood just doesn't give them enough. You see a few bugs in fairly warm weather, but once you've had a few hard freezes they will have gone into winter hibernation mode - it will take a couple days for them to wake up and decide to come out and investigate - if you only bring in a few days supply at a time, no problem.

OTOH, I would NOT do Eernest's suggestion of throwing salt in the fire - note that many stove makers specifically warn against burning driftwood because the salt in it creates CORROSIVE fumes that can attack and rot out a metal stove or chimney liner in short order.

Gooserider

 

[DriftWood]

- note that many stove makers specifically warn against burning driftwood because the salt in it creates CORROSIVE fumes that can attack and rot out a metal stove or chimney liner in short order.

Gooserider

Do not burn Salt water drift wood, just dry out the fresh water kind, it burns no problem.

 

[jpl1nh]

The threat of wood damaging insects occurs when you store large quantities of wood in your home in places such as the basement or garage where it is kept warm and close to the structure. Termites and ants, the most damaging of wood eating insects are both social insects. In colonies they are a substantial threat, as individuals they are not. I find carpenter ants in a lot of the lying dead wood and some of the standing dead and living trees I cut down. When you cut the wood to length, and split it, you destroy the colonies they need to be effective. They will quickly and frantically depart looking for a new home. Both termites and carpenter ants need moisture to do well so stacking and air drying the wood makes it an unattractive place for them and you will not find them trying to colonize there Its best to bring in only small quantities of wood into your house at any one time, like what you'll likely burn over the next few days. While I find that I never have termites, ants, or powder post beetles in my really dry wood, even if there were one or two by chance, in that number they cannot cause an infestation and hence the damage that you would need to be concerned about. A single carpenter ant loose in your home is not a threat. A colony is a threat. Personally I would not treat my firewood with anything and find it completely unnecessary assuming you cut, split and stack it so that it is really dry. I don't want additional chemicals in the combustion stream from my chimney. I also would not use salt in my stove since it is extremely corrosive to metal. All in all, as long as you properly care for your firewood by cutting it to length, splitting it and stacking it in a way that it dries and stays dry and do not try to store large quantities of wood inside your house or against your house, insects are not a problem to be concerned about.

 

[eernest4]

dear gooserider & jplinh,

Thanks for the heads up on not using the salt because it is corrosive.

I read about that in a book on wood stoves that I got from the library,but it was an OLD BOOK from before the time of epa stoves and stainless double walled chimney liners. From back in the days of cast iron stoves and masionry chimneys.

I will talk to the head librayin about getting rid of that book & replacing it with a modern book on epa stoves.

And I will stop using the salt.

 

[Rick]

I bring in a few days worth at a time and have never had a problem with bringing in bugs. I split after a year of seasoning, so most of my wood is bark-less. The bugs really have no place to hide without the bark. I do get the occasional spider, however, especially this time of year.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I bring my wood in and toss it into a rubbermaid tub. It keeps all the dirt and bugs contained. When it gets a layer of stuff in the bottom it's scooped out and burned.

Matt

 

[DumbAsh]

I have been using plastic totes to carry dried wood into the house. They are neat and stackable. They help to keep bark and wood chips off the carpet. I have noticed mosquitoes comming out of hibernation on occasion when you pop the lid. Our vet said to keep your dog on heartworm med. year round if you burn wood in the house.

Best regards

 

[elkimmeg]

all unfortunate critters in my wood are soon turned into BTUs
To me its a non issue I toss them in the fire If your wood is a bit unseasoned it helps to bring it in a week ahead of time and allow for further drying before usage.
Especially if it c got damp from rain

 

[Lignums]

Wait until a few good freezes and all the bugs become shells of what they once were, including ants and powder post beetles, they need flesh stuff to survive anyway.

 

[jjbaer]

I use a method I don't think has been mentioned here that guarantees NO BUGS in the house: I walk to the woodpile and get a large stack of wood, drop 1/2 off at my porch (where it's still very cold) and carry the remainder into the house and dump 100% of it right into the fire.....this GUARANTEES that no bugs have time to crawl anywhere........when I need a few more splits, I open the back door, reach down and get a few.

 

[shaggymatt]

I just never have much more than about two loadings of the stove in the house at any given time. When it does come in, the cats love the smell of the outside since they are indoor cats. Anything that comes crawling off becomes a toy that doesn't make it too long. I don't have any infestations, maybe a couple bugs per trip. Just outside my door, I have a four foot wood rack, with a full cover, that is my wood ready for burning. I can reach it without getting my feet cold. :D My main source piles (3 cords worth) are elevated and have a nice black rubber tarp covering the top few feet so that wood is dry and ready to burn as well.

The only thing I have left to "figure out" is what to do with the branches, etc. for kindling. I like the idea of the plastic totes, and maybe even storing those in the basement. Throw some Damp Rid in with it to assist with the drying since they'll be sealed up.

 

[Matt_W]

Seems like I always get those darm wood roaches in the house! Had alot of them whem I stored wood inside the house. A big tupperware type contaner helped contain them. I now have a wood shed that helps alot but they are still around.
I have noticed when pull out a log from the wood shed to put in the fire sometimes they drop off on the floor.

I have become the king bug killer in the house!

 

[Metal]

Chlorides and metal venting do not like each other. Most manufacturers recommend not storing/using any cleaners near your furnace or hot water heater as they can ruin your vent.

 

[woodburn]

A lot of you mentioned the plastic or rubbermaid buns. I have some of these but I didn't think they sealed tightly enough to keep bug s out or in. Do they really work to keep bugs contained like that?

 

[Gooserider]

A lot of you mentioned the plastic or rubbermaid buns. I have some of these but I didn't think they sealed tightly enough to keep bug s out or in. Do they really work to keep bugs contained like that?

I don't know how they taste... %-P

But the bugs seem to not like them, and they are going to tend to stay in the bin unless given a reason to move. Bugs are just as lazy as the rest of us, so I would say they'd be reasonably effective, especially for short term use, although I haven't bothered with them for the most part - just 5 gallon plastic buckets for my kindling, etc. I'm perhaps less fussy about the mess than some, but we haven't really found bugs to be an issue.

Gooserider

 

[luv2byte]

We store all our wood and kindling out in the barn. About once a week one of us will hook up a cart to one of our riding mowers, go out to get a load and we bring that in to the garage. We then bring about a days burning worth of wood in to the house. After 6 yrs of this we haven't had any problems. With the very dry wood we find dried up shriveled bugs all the time but the only live critter we find is the spiders.

 

[dcummings]

Howdy,

I've been reading through a couple of the insect threads and have also spent several days trying to identify a few of the bugs I've found crawling away from my daily bag-o-wood next to the stove (I usually keep a rotating week's worth out on the porch and the large, covered stockpile 20+ yards away from the house). No wings, but the only thing I think it KIND of looks like is the "alate" form of a drywood termite. It really doesn't look like any of the post hole beetle OR ant pictures I've seen, though the wood dust out around my pile suggests that I may also have some post hole beetle activity out there. I read that drywood termites don't need any moisture and thus may infest dry / covered stacks.

The bug has a black head and a reddish-brown rear end / abdomen that seems to have light colored stripes across it, almost. Whole body, including abdomen, is pretty tube-like / of equal width.

Any ideas out there? There aren't a lot of them . . . I've probably caught 10 over the past two weeks, but I definitely don't want them eating into my house.

Drew
Durham, NC
RSF Onyx insert (and loving it)

 

[Ken45]

I prefer not to store wood close to the house until it's cold out.

I will bring some extra in at night, but only good solid wood. Anything with loose bark, holes, etc. is saved for when it can go directly into the fire.

I think it also depends on the wood you have (duh!). If you're cutting good healthy trees vs. dead wood that's been on the ground.

Ken

 

[Carl]

When we used our woodbox in the house that would hold a weeks worth of wood we always got lots
of spiders and other bugs which would appear on the ceiling and walls at different places. These all
cleared up after a couple of year of only bringing wood in and directly placing it in the stove.

I now stack it in a woodbox on the unheated porch and bring it in as needed. No problem to open the
door and grab a couple of sticks ever 4 hours or so. We can't notice any difference in it starting to burn
from the frozen state and the house warmed one. Lighting it with no coals doesn't make any noticable
difference for us.

I don't think freezing will kill spiders and bugs as this is a part of their life cycle. They don't need much
of a place to hide in so even clean wood could have them attached in a small crack or under the bark.

Do whatever works for you but in my part of the country bugs are always attached to our wood.

 

[Ken45]

I don't think freezing will kill spiders and bugs as this is a part of their life cycle. They don't need much
of a place to hide in so even clean wood could have them attached in a small crack or under the bark.

But I don't think the really dangerous ones (termites, carpenter ants, etc.) will be in good healthy wood. They usually need damp, deteriorating wood.

I'm not worried about spiders or other benign bugs so much.

Ken

 

[RedRanger]

Never brought in a load of wood yet, in my plastic tote that doesn`t contain some form of spider or another. Really don`t know why the panic, they won`t bother you unless you happen to sit or roll on one of them.

Anyway,the cats always make a B-line to the wood container to hunt and chase them down,and eat them.

As for the other critters,well maybe keep indoor cats like we do. Nothing gets out of that wood box alive :coolgrin: