ants & insects

[mass_burner]

I use Advance in homemade plastic boxes only cause my stacks are about 10-15' from my basement and i've seen them in the joist bays when we bought the house. I put 1 box in font of each stack. They eat, share with others, works very well. Never had any ants inside since I started this. I'm talking Carpenter Ants.

 

[Woody Stover]

I dont know many people that are fond of spiders, wood burners or not.......

Creepy little critters, they are. The creepiest are the big, quick ones with good eyes...wolf spiders! Can't hardly catch those buggers!

A safe way to kill bugs in the stacks - cover it completely, all the way to the ground with black plastic film for a few days. The hot sun turns...Kills the eggs and larvae, too.

Ah, but what about the toxic byproducts of making plastics? I tell ya, everything we do is an assault to life on the planet, including exhaling CO2.

Interesting proposal. What about this thread gives wood burners a bad name?

It hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread but maybe the fact that burners don't remove all the bugs from the wood they bring in and return them outdoors, but rather just toss the splits into the stove where the bugs meet a fiery death.
EDIT: Oh yeah, Bret mentioned "popcorn ants."
I do take perverse joy in killing ticks, the blood-sucking, disease-ridden bass turds. I'll probably be squashed or drowned in hell for that...

In the grand scheme of things, gasoline isn't that toxic compared to other things you can pour on your firewood....it will evaporate very quickly

Hey, haven't they been telling us not to fill our tanks in the heat of the day, to prevent excessive fumes escaping? We can't win!

if using a few squirts of gas makes the OP feel better, more power to him!

And less power to us...that gas could be going into our tanks!

 

[Woody Stover]

I use Advance in homemade plastic boxes only cause my stacks are about 10-15' from my basement and i've seen them in the joist bays when we bought the house. I put 1 box in font of each stack. They eat, share with others, works very well. Never had any ants inside since I started this. I'm talking Carpenter Ants.

So the ants were already there, they didn't come from the wood stacks, right? I'm guessing most of these home invasions come from established colonies outside, looking for a better home, not from a stray one or two that ride in on a split. I'm no expert, though...

 

[Highbeam]

The good carpenter ant poisons work by being drug back to the main colony by a lone ant exploring away from the colony. As such, the poison can be anywhere in the colony's range or territory to be lethal to the colony.

The bad (stupid) ant poisons kill only the single ant.

 

[lindnova]

Quit that. Now! Ants will not stay around dry wood. 40 years doing this stuff and never have ever seen a bug come out of dry wood in this house.

Which really pisses off the cat.

I have heard stories from people always complaining of the bugs and firewood. I have to agree that dry wood that I have has had no ants. If there are ants in a piece when I am splitting I might use it for bonfires, but by the time it is dry they are gone anyway.

Gas evaporating is a waste and not good for the environment. I doubt it would hurt anything on the firewood months later.

 

[bobdog2o02]

As far as bugs i find more beetle larvae under bark than anything, last year was awfull with these things.....

 

[Roundgunner]

I got a bunch of big black ants while splitting a oak fork today. They were pissed, saw a couple with wings, Queen ants?

 

[bassJAM]

Winged ants are called swarmers. When a colony is healthy, a number of winged male and female ants will go off and try to start a new colony. Apparently most of them die before much of anything happens.

 

[Paulywalnut]

"Ooooo, an ant!" What a bunch of pantywaists you guys are! We all pollute the hell out of the planet every day, but I'm not chomping at the bit to dump more toxins into the environment just because I saw a couple of ants. Maybe in a previous life you guys were killed by being buried up to your neck in an anthill. That could explain it...
This got my attention a couple hours ago when I picked up a blown-off top cover. Crappy pic...No, I didn't kill it.
View attachment 134596

My gosh that's a mother ready to bare her children. . Get a save the the spider 5k started!

 

[Woody Stover]

My gosh that's a mother ready to bare her children. . Get a save the the spider 5k started!

I figure they can save themselves. I looked at her again an hour later, and it looked like she was working to cut the nest loose. I went back out the next morning to get a better pic and, sho' 'nuff, the nest and spider were gone. I'm going to start stacking more wood in that area. Luckily, I'll be moving that particular stack to someone else's house soon. I'll keep my eyes peeled and I will be wearing gloves when I move that stack. I don't see a lot of Black Widows here; I think they're more common further south.

 

[jillybeansisme]

Well, I live in Las Vegas and I can tell you Black Widows, ants of all kinds, and scorpions are RAMPANT. No fun, either. We do have those awful brown recluses, although I have never seen one (nor do I care to ever see one). Spectracide Bug Kill in a black bottle is just under $6 and works fabulously. I have no moral issues killing critters with that stuff.

 

[Woody Stover]

We do have those awful brown recluses, although I have never seen one

That's because they are...well, reclusive.

 

[Charles1981]

Termidor

Available on Amazon.

Same ingredient as Frontline (your flea and tick preventative for your dog and cats).

I apply it to my wood stacks and to the perimeter of my house yearly.

No crawling insects in my house or wood stacks at all. And same principle. Insects take it back to the nest eggs and doesn't kill them right away until it gets all of them essentially.

Very inexpensive considering how much one 70$ bottle makes. Will last you a few years.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I don't like ants or other bugs in my fire wood. My neighbor had told me that Gasoline kills them fast. So it might take some time I check every hole in the wood before it goes to the wood rack. Have a squeeze bottle with gas, ants last about 30sec. I also found in the house the Victor ultimate flea trap works great for getting bugs. It uses a 7 watt bulb and a replaceable sticky pad.

Super!

 

[mass_burner]

So the ants were already there, they didn't come from the wood stacks, right? I'm guessing most of these home invasions come from established colonies outside, looking for a better home, not from a stray one or two that ride in on a split. I'm no expert, though...

yes the ants were already established inside the basement joist bays. They seemed to be going back and forth or roaming around the back of the house nearest that location in the basement. This was all before I had any drying stacks up. But since my initial treatment and eviction of the ants from the basement, I have seen them around the wood stack. I believe this is just a coincidence, but since I see them there its a good place to treat them there.

 

[Highbeam]

Termidor

Available on Amazon.

Same ingredient as Frontline (your flea and tick preventative for your dog and cats).

I apply it to my wood stacks and to the perimeter of my house yearly.

No crawling insects in my house or wood stacks at all. And same principle. Insects take it back to the nest eggs and doesn't kill them right away until it gets all of them essentially.

Very inexpensive considering how much one 70$ bottle makes. Will last you a few years.

Good job finding it. I use the generic version but the name escapes me right now. Very effective. I bought mine at a pest control website. DIY something. The termidor can no longer be shipped to be but the generic can. We don't have termites but termite poison kicks the heck out of carpenter ants and most others.

 

[mass_burner]

yes the ants were already established inside the basement joist bays. They seemed to be going back and forth or roaming around the back of the house nearest that location in the basement. This was all before I had any drying stacks up. But since my initial treatment and eviction of the ants from the basement, I have seen them around the wood stack. I believe this is just a coincidence, but since I see them there its a good place to treat them there.

BTW, I found a colony this weekend while weeding the end of my planting beds. Its about 4-5' from the property line, not even close to the house, but about 10' from my nearest drying stack.

 

[woodsman416]

I hang a couple of bird feeders filled with black oil sunflower seeds and suet cages with deer fat in them right at my stacks. Keeps the birds around and the bugs to a minimum.

 

[bobdog2o02]

I hang a couple of bird feeders filled with black oil sunflower seeds and suet cages with deer fat in them right at my stacks. Keeps the birds around and the bugs to a minimum.

I can see this working for the bugs but wouldnt this bring the mice to your stacks

 

[woodsman416]

I can see this working for the bugs but wouldnt this bring the mice to your stacks

Between foxes, cats, owls and hawks I don't have much of a problem with mice.

 

[JCrean]

Do moth balls do anything to keep bugs away, or just rodents and such?

 

[Hogwildz]

Insects burn just fine.
I personally can't imagine putting poison all over my wood, then burning it.
Just not for me, that can't be healthy.
To each their own. No insect problems in the years I been burning.

 

[woodsman416]

Do moth balls do anything to keep bugs away, or just rodents and such?

It might work on some insects but not on moths......they already have 'em!

 

[Shawn Curry]

I don't care much about ants - they're simply a fact of life on my property. They love my sandy soil, and all the dead rotten wood in my forest. But they make a fine snack for all the birds who frequent my yard. Plus, they felled the massive green ash at my neighbor's house that provided me all the wood I need for the '15/'16 season. There was a huge anthill inside the base of the trunk, about 18" diameter, and maybe 10' tall.

The ones I want to exterminate are those tree-killer metallic colored boring beetles. I think I had a swarm of them appear the other day, eating the recently-blooming flowers off of my Rose of Sharon. Now they must die. Raid has a "garden pest" flavor that's supposed to be gentle on plants, which I plan to try first. Any other recommendations?