Ants in the wood pile.

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muleman51

Member
Hearth Supporter
Feb 18, 2008
246
SE Minnesota
I have these big black ant in some of my wood. How do you get rid of them. I'm not organtic so I don't really care what has to be done. Somebody told me kerosene but that didn't seem like too bright an idea to me, although it would make lighting a fire easier.
 
muleman51 said:
I have these big black ant in some of my wood. How do you get rid of them. I'm not organtic so I don't really care what has to be done. Somebody told me kerosene but that didn't seem like too bright an idea to me, although it would make lighting a fire easier.

Dip 'em in chocolate? We live in a sandy area, where there are a lot of ants, but I've never seen them in the wood pile after the wood
has been split and stacked. Unless they're getting in your house, i wouldn't worry about it.
 
7 dust
 
I agree. I was out stacking wood yesterday and kept running into ants. I don't like them but refuse to worry about them. They will find a new home once the wood dries.

Funny, another thing I ran into was a red squirrel nest way down in the pile.
 
I've never seen anything other than spiders in my wood pile. I imagine I've turned some carpenter bees into btu's though. When stacking I've put up lots of wood with carpenter ants in them. They go away.

Matt
 
I mix up a stong solution of water and TSP. Spray the wood (soak) with the solution and it will kill the critters. A real plus is that when the solution dries and you burn the wood the TSP cleans the chimney.
Mike
 
NAMELESSLEE said:

Hey Lee, I've never had any luck with Terro on the big black buggers. Works great on any other ant but doesn't seem to have any effect on the big ones. I've always wondered why.
 
If it's stacked in a way that it can dry out the ants will disappear.

If there's wet spots where it can't dry perhaps little reatacking is in order.
 
let me guess, this wood is soft maple
 
The big black ants are Carpenter Ants. I have found them in almost every species of wood I have. They aren't in every tree, but they aren't too selective around here either. The wood they are in I split on the small side, and they seem to abondon ship immediately. I don't think they are living in my wood stacks, but I guess I won't know for sure until I move it to burn. Or maybe I'll just burn them and never realize they are there.
 
I know that if you leave soft maple in the rounds in the sun the ants love them..soft maple rots from the inside out and when moist inside they love it...
 
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