Firewood in basement.

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Microduck17

Burning Hunk
Dec 21, 2017
241
New Concord Ohio
I started to bring in some wood and stack it in the basement but stopped when I got a few rows into the stack because there was some wood dust starting to show up between the pieces. Didn't want to bring in any termites or other wood eaters. My question is how cold does it need to get and for how long to kill or drive off termites and ants and the like. It has not got below freezing here yet. I have space for 8 pallets currently only have 3 in place. I want to fill it once and be done with it for the season. I would like to here any opinions and facts you might have. Below is a pic of my setup for wood storage, the pallets are on bricks to keep them off the floor witch gets wet when it rains hard.
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I never bring any wood near or into the house until there have been a number of hard freezes. Too many ants, spiders, and other bugs in the wood pile.
 
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This is our 39 th year of putting wood in the basement .
Started at 10 cord a year but with up grades ( windows ,doors
insulation) we now use 5 . Have never worried about any kind of bug
clean them up as need be . Like my wood in the basement WARM and DRY
 
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I dont tjink your going to DRIVE all insects from the wood because of it being cold. Some insects will overwinter in the wood and also there is insect larva that could be in the wood. I have processed wood in January and February with it being 5 degrees and split wood that had carpenter ants in it. The ants were alive,cold and not moving verry fast. Bringing that in the house will cause some issues.. Its difficult not to bring in insects into the home when storing wood in the house. I keep my wood outside and a days worth of wood inside.
 
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My wood has termites, flat-headed borers, and powder post beetle - we're VERY careful about what gets brought in to the house.
 
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Do you think it would be worth while to treat my basement beams and boards with something to help protect them against critters that would otherwise eat them? Something like copper-green?

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If your concern is crawling bugs, not flying ones, can you isolate the wood in a moat of soapy water? For example, one of my wood racks is one of those chrome wire storage racks that some restaurants use for those huge cans of food, which stands on four metal posts. I have four little metal bowls that the feet sit in. I keep the bowls full of soapy water, which prevents the critters from being able to access whatever is on the rack. It's mostly to keep ants out of otherwise clean firewood while it's still warm enough for them to be running around, but you see what I'm getting at.

This gets awkward to scale up to, say, loading your entire basement with firewood, but for ants and termites, it will similarly keep them confined to your wood piles and unable to get to your house if you keep the moats going.
 
Adabiviak said:
If your concern is crawling bugs, not flying ones, can you isolate the wood in a moat of soapy water? For example, one of my wood racks is one of those chrome wire storage racks that some restaurants use for those huge cans of food, which stands on four metal posts. I have four little metal bowls that the feet sit in. I keep the bowls full of soapy water, which prevents the critters from being able to access whatever is on the rack. It's mostly to keep ants out of otherwise clean firewood while it's still warm enough for them to be running around, but you see what I'm getting at.

This gets awkward to scale up to, say, loading your entire basement with firewood, but for ants and termites, it will similarly keep them confined to your wood piles and unable to get to your house if you keep the moats going.
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I like that idea but im not shure about isolating whole pallets of wood. Each pallet sits on 6 bricks to keep them off the sometimes very wet floor. Maybe i could get some sections of seamless rain gutter made and use 3 of them under my row of pallets with the bricks sitting in the gutters. Might be cheaper to pretreat my beams and joists. I will have to check into the cost of both options.

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I don't bring anything within thirty feet of the house until we've had 20 nights or so in the mid or low 20s. If it looks like it's had some kind of carpenter ant or termite activity, it doesn't come in until I throw it on a fire.
 
All the bugs that people are mentioning like wet wood. If your basement is wet don’t bring the wood in. If your basement is dry you should not have an issue.
 
This likely varies depending on where you are and your local bug situation.

I have always put my entire winters wood in my basement, usually during a dry spell in October. No waiting for frosts or the like - although there usually have been some by the time i get it in. I used to roll whole pallets of it straight in. Now I wheel barrow it in, since it is now sitting in the yard an extra year drying so more chance to accumulate things. Like leaves & pine needles & (adandoned) mouse or wasp nests. It goes in very dry & with loading it into a wheel barrow first it also goes in very clean. I usually have a couple of wheelbarrows full of bark pieces that I stuff a garbage can with & burn in the boiler over the winter - the finer dirtier stuff gets dumped into the trees or green bin.

This will be year 22 for putting it all inside, with no apparent issues yet. I do see the odd spider down there over the winter, but also see those in the summer when there isn't wood down there. We have no termites here but do have ants.
 
maple1 said:
This likely varies depending on where you are and your local bug situation.

I have always put my entire winters wood in my basement, usually during a dry spell in October. No waiting for frosts or the like - although there usually have been some by the time i get it in. I used to roll whole pallets of it straight in. Now I wheel barrow it in, since it is now sitting in the yard an extra year drying so more chance to accumulate things. Like leaves & pine needles & (adandoned) mouse or wasp nests. It goes in very dry & with loading it into a wheel barrow first it also goes in very clean. I usually have a couple of wheelbarrows full of bark pieces that I stuff a garbage can with & burn in the boiler over the winter - the finer dirtier stuff gets dumped into the trees or green bin.

This will be year 22 for putting it all inside, with no apparent issues yet. I do see the odd spider down there over the winter, but also see those in the summer when there isn't wood down there. We have no termites here but do have ants.
Click to expand...

My arrangement is a little different as the wood room is part of the concrete foundation but still has a full house over the whole pour but I have no bugs other than a couple of spiders and I had them before and year around just like any other house. I'm on my 13th year.
 
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My basement walls and floor are concrete but i stack the wood within 8 inches of the beams above. The floor gets wet when it rains a lot but dries quickly. Ive got the pallets sitting on bricks to keep them dry we have a dehumidifier in the basemet thats set to 55%. The wood we had left over from last year was super dry and burned really well this fall. Near the end of this heating season but before the thaw I want to bring in as much wood as possible so it can get nice and dry for the next season. I think I can fit aroud 5 cords in the basement it would be excellent to start the next season with that much dry wood. Is it possible to have your firewood too dry?

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maple1 said:
I dont think firewood would dry better in a basement in the summer than outside in the wind and sun?
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Maybe not green wood. But the stuff i would.be putting in would already have been seasoned 2 years outside by the time it goes downstairs. We keep the humidity really low in the summer because we run air coditioners from late april till the end of september. And we have a powerfull dehumidifier in our basement that dries and circulates the air. My thinking is that in the dry air inside the basement would get it drier than the nearly soggy air we have outside all summer in eastern Ohio. Last time I meaured the humidity in my basement during summer months when the A/C is full blast it was 35%. I could be wrong. Ill have to get a moisture tester and do some testing.

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Microduck17 said:
Maybe not green wood. But the stuff i would.be putting in would already have been seasoned 2 years outside by the time it goes downstairs. We keep the humidity really low in the summer because we run air coditioners from late april till the end of september. And we have a powerfull dehumidifier in our basement that dries and circulates the air. My thinking is that in the dry air inside the basement would get it drier than the nearly soggy air we have outside all summer in eastern Ohio. Last time I meaured the humidity in my basement during summer months when the A/C is full blast it was 35%. I could be wrong. Ill have to get a moisture tester and do some testing.

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Click to expand...

OK - in that case you likely have a point.
 
My neighbor brings his whole seasons supply of firewood into his basement in the fall. I tell him he’s crazy because I wouldn’t want to invite that many bugs into my living space besides the dust and mold that it brings in. In years past I would store 1-2 face cords in the basement next to the stove for convenience. There were many times I would get to the bottom of the row and discover a colony of ants had awaken from a frosty slumber. Even checking each split over carefully before bringing them into the house I would still have that happen once a year. No termite in NY so it’s not as concerning but still a hassle, I can’t imagine what my neighbor deals with besides a large electric bill from running a dehumidifier non stop... Now I have a boiler and a boiler room and only store about 10 cubic ft of wood next to the boiler. Just long enough to give it a chance to dry any surface moisture and reach room temperature. I’m happy the wood is out of my living space. I would never revert back if I can help it.
 
This is what I've found in my wood while splitting just in the last few days. I don't want ANY of these things in my framing.

First up is a flat headed borer of some sort...
P_20181014_172340(1).jpg

Dampwood termites. The end of September the sky was red with them hatching and emerging from our surrounding forest.
P_20181020_162757.jpg

Powder post beetle, LOTS of powder post beetles.
P_20181020_161909.jpg
 
I keep a decent supply in the garage, and 2 days worth next to the stove, I really don't worry about bugs, but I'm also not stacking inside for the long haul either, I guess if I had to stack inside I'd put out some ant traps by the wood.
 
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AlbergSteve said:
This is what I've found in my wood while splitting just in the last few days. I don't want ANY of these things in my framing.

First up is a flat headed borer of some sort...
View attachment 231386

Dampwood termites. The end of September the sky was red with them hatching and emerging from our surrounding forest.
View attachment 231388

Powder post beetle, LOTS of powder post beetles.
View attachment 231387
Click to expand...


Yes, but - if you found those while splitting that means your wood is wet. Once split and stacked and seasoned they will be gone. I dont think anyone is recommending rounds go in.
 
Great pictures. Ive seen a few of the beetles but didnt know they were wood boarers. Ive seen plenty of the grubs but only when splitting stuff thats been laying on the ground for a long time. Ive been hand checking every peice that goes into my wood cart before it gets near the house. Anything that even looks like its been boared or or eaten or with large amounts of mold of fungi gets tossed in a reject heap that gets restacked near my cement block garage to be used to heat the garage. I didnt get my piles covered this year like I should have so a I rejected more than I would have liked to. Although it didnt all come from my woodpile there is about 2.5 cords of substandard or moldy wood stacked outside the garage and top covered. The garage stove is a "circulator" type and it runs almost wide open the all the time because of the size of the garage so it just eats anything I toss in there. But it only cost $20.

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maple1 said:
Yes, but - if you found those while splitting that means your wood is wet. Once split and stacked and seasoned they will be gone. I dont think anyone is recommending rounds go in.
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True for our termites, and for the flat head borer, but the powder post beetle will take up residence in your framing or furniture if it can. The wood I burned last year had been sitting in a wood shed from the previous owner of the property, been there about 2 years. It was between 12 and 16% and there were piles of wood dust from powder post beetle. Even the adjacent building that we use for a chicken coop is infested in the framing.
 
AlbergSteve said:
True for our termites, and for the flat head borer, but the powder post beetle will take up residence in your framing or furniture if it can. The wood I burned last year had been sitting in a wood shed from the previous owner of the property, been there about 2 years. It was between 12 and 16% and there were piles of wood dust from powder post beetle. Even the adjacent building that we use for a chicken coop is infested in the framing.
Click to expand...
I have a few in my wood I've been burning, usually the tell tale sign is a powder like sawdust on the splits. I get quite a few in my ash.
 
Chas0218 said:
I have a few in my wood I've been burning, usually the tell tale sign is a powder like sawdust on the splits. I get quite a few in my ash.
Click to expand...

I've noticed that the powder post beetle seems to have a real affinity for ash.
 
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