Ant poop?

[Jambx]

started using the fireview steadily now and getting deeper and deeper into my oldest woodpile - I am finding a lot (and I mean a lot) of what looks like very very small round specs of what I am assuming is Ant droppings) but the mystery is I have not seen a single one - not one ant - where are the buggers - in the wood?...

My piles are ~150 feet from the house however I keep a small pile near the porch door.

Temps here in CT ~60's in the day - upper 30's at night. When do these guys go dormant?

Is any of this a concern or do I just fry'em up?

 

[pyronut]

It sounds more like mice/rat poop. Take a pic if you have a chance.

 

[red oak]

It sounds more like mice/rat poop. Take a pic if you have a chance.

+1 on the mice poop. I find similar in my wood pile, going by your description. I know there are mice in there because each winter I find 3-4 abandoned mice nests in the stacks. It's not a big deal though - the wood belongs to me but the mice belong to my cat!

 

[Wood Duck]

Maybe you had some type of bug when the wood was greener, but they moved on as the wood dried. Either way I'd just keep an eye on the wood you bring inside so you don't have too many bugs loose in the house. An ant infestation requires that a queen ant and a fair number of workers move. A few ants won't do it.

 

[wood-fan-atic]

I believe I have that as well in my stacks. Tiny little black specs, right? As small as grains of sand. What can you do..... fire 'em up.

 

[fossil]

Mice they're gonna generally be less than 1/8" diameter, up to maybe 3/8" long. Rats easily double that. In either case, they're not going to be accumulations of tiny little specks. If these droppings are really really tiny (like wood-fan-atic describes), and collect like little piles of sawdust, then I'd say it's some teensy boring bugs of some sort eating into your wood. I've seen it a lot, especially with Juniper out here in Oregon (although I have never seen the actual organism responsible). Termites leave residue like that, but unless there's water around someplace, it's likely not termites. In any case, I don't worry about it. They don't eat much, and if they happen to survive long enough, they end up in a woodstove. Rick

 

[DanCorcoran]

With termites, the technical term is frass. Could also be caterpillars. Check Google images for frass.

 

[tsquini]

I always thought it was the poop from a Pillbug. The little bugs that roll up.

 

[Jambx]

I believe I have that as well in my stacks. Tiny little black specs, right? As small as grains of sand. What can you do..... fire 'em up.

BINGO - like grains of sand - well put.

its all over the place and wasnt there 2 months ago - but there no buggers (pun intended) in sight!

 

[weatherguy]

I got em in my stacks too and I know I have a lot of mice living in my stacks, I see them now and then and the dog is always trying to get at them.