ants & insects

[bill2500hd]

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.

 

[pen]

To make sure I follow, you spray holes in your firewood with gasoline? Then bring them in the house?

 

[BrotherBart]

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.

 

[fossil]

To each his own. But to me, this just sounds like a waste of time and gas.

 

[bill2500hd]

To make sure I follow, you spray holes in your firewood with gasoline? Then bring them in the house?

NO, I squat some gas in the hole, than the wood goes out in the wood rack . This is well before it would ever go in the house

 

[Highbeam]

Like liqiud gasoline? Do you have a spray bottle ful of it? There are certainly bugs that live in and love dry wood but not ants. They make much better and cheaper poisons that you can spray your stack with.

 

[bill2500hd]

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.

While I have a lot to learn about wood. I know a thing or three about flammable solvents. Any wood treated is in warm weather, and "will not see fire or flame for months or a year or two." The gas will have evaporated. Worked 6 yrs making compressed gas's, two explosions with (silane). over 27 years with flammable solvents. Methanol,toluene,benzene,eather. The list goes on. Am I wasting my time, I have time, wasting $, don't use much (old). I don't like ants in my wood rack. Also will spray with ant and termite killer.

 

[tsquini]

You will have to have to burn the wood. I don't think petroleum based products should be sprayed on your firewood at any time. If you want to get the ants fine use borax, honey and water. The borax makes the ants swell and die, the honey attracts them and the water make it all a liquid.

 

[Fifelaker]

I brought a load of wood home last week that was loaded with ants. I threw it in a heap to stack later. For a few days there were all kinds of birds eating. I stacked some today between rain showers and never seen an ant.

 

[Paulywalnut]

I've never had an ant in the house from firewood. Little sugar ants but never a.black ant that you see outside when you're splitting. They take off and high tale it when you split their house open. Your wasting time and gas. With the price of gas get an Aardvark

 

[pen]

I've never had an ant in the house from firewood. Little sugar ants but never a.black ant that you see outside when you're splitting. They take off and high tale it when you split their house open. Your wasting time and gas. With the price of gas get an Aardvark

Exactly, ants have only ever been found by me in wood when it was in the log form. Once split and put int the stack to dry for a year plus, I've never found them in a piece that goes through that then comes into the house.

pen

 

[Highbeam]

You dont find them because they've moved into your house. Can't you hear them munching?

I've found live wood boring grubs in very dry, two year stacked, doug fir. Maybe termites, i dont know. No ants but enough grubs and insects that i am supportive of poisoning firewood plus other measures to prevent these life forms from moving into my home.

 

[BIGDADDY]

Let the ants live. If they get in your house call the Ulrich man (exterminator)

 

[Bret Chase]

You dont find them because they've moved into your house. Can't you hear them munching?

I've found live wood boring grubs in very dry, two year stacked, doug fir. Maybe termites, i dont know. No ants but enough grubs and insects that i am supportive of poisoning firewood plus other measures to prevent these life forms from moving into my home.

here there are no termites.... the winter here is too cold for them to survive... All I do is when I bring the wood in in October is "salt" the stacks in the shed with Amdro bait traps. any ants that are dormant in the firewood when we bring it into the house pop like popcorn in the stove, lol.

 

[Woody Stover]

"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.

 

[bobdog2o02]

BLACK WIDOW KILL IT WITH FIRE NOW!!

 

[Woody Stover]

BLACK WIDOW KILL IT WITH FIRE NOW!!

Nah, I want to see if I can get a better pic tomorrow...and maybe some cute baby pics later.

 

[Highbeam]

"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

I didn't know we even had the bw spiders here.

 

[Applesister]

My brother took his motor home to Las Vegas and he said they nested all under the bottom of the frame. Black widows.

 

[Woody Stover]

I didn't know we even had the bw spiders here.

My pic is a Northern; You have the Western in WA but I don't know if that includes your area . We've got the Brown Recluse as well. I could find a couple in the house if I looked around.

 

[BCC_Burner]

Black widows are found across most of the continental U.S. nowadays.

Threads like this are part of what give wood burners a bad name, not just smoke coming out of chimneys.

 

[bobdog2o02]

Black widows are found across most of the continental U.S. nowadays.

Threads like this are part of what give wood burners a bad name, not just smoke coming out of chimneys.

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

 

[Fred Wright]

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 it into a Bake-A-Bug oven. Kills the eggs and larvae, too.

 

[Highbeam]

Threads like this are part of what give wood burners a bad name, not just smoke coming out of chimneys.

Interesting proposal. What about this thread gives wood burners a bad name? The fact that wood has bugs? The fact that we have poison to kill them?

 

[bassJAM]

In the grand scheme of things, gasoline isn't that toxic compared to other things you can pour on your firewood. And even at $5/gallon, it's still cheaper than most pest killers. The nice thing about gas is it will evaporate very quickly, so I don't see a problem here. I've yet to have ants stick around after I've split and stacked firewood, but if using a few squirts of gas makes the OP feel better, more power to him!