Bark & Bugs

[luv2byte]

We are fairly new to the wood burning lifestyle - only about 6yrs. We had 3 70ft trees taken down in June (marmed) and we are working on getting the wood split this weekend. Since June the wood has sat outside where it was left, mostly becuase it was way too heavy to move so many pieces. Much of the bark is falling off showing much of the termites and other critters that made a home between it and the wood. The wood looks beautiful and when the bark will come off we are pulling it off. We are storing the wood in our barn and what doesn't fit in the barn we will store outside covered w/a tarp. I believe 2 of the 3 trees are spruce, not sure what the other tree is except some sort of evergreen.

How to avoid bugs in the wood once split?
Is it ok to spray the split wood to prevent the termites?
Should we leave the bark on or remove it when it is easy to remove?
Recommendations?

 

[MrGriz]

Welcome to the hearth Ellie, nice to have you.

It sounds like you have a good start on next seasons wood there. I usually will remove any bark that comes off fairly easily, for a couple of reasons. I think the bark tends to hold moisture and slow the seasoning process. The second is for the reason you mentioned; it displaces the critters that are living below it.

Generally I find that anything living in the wood I split finds a new home once the old one is split to pieces and I usually don't have a problem with anything moving back in (except for a few spiders living amongst the splits). You may want to sprinkle some ant powder around / on the pile, especially if it will be near your home or garage.

Finally, I would keep the bulk of that wood outside and in the sun, as it will season better that way. I don't have an indoor storage option, maybe someone who stores in a barn or garage can chime in. I would think that moving seasoned wood to an indoor location would be better than trying to season it under cover.

Just my .02

 

[nshif]

Are you planing on burning the wood this year? If so split it ASAP and leave it outside as long as possible ( till winter sets in maybe with a cover on the top when it gets rainey) Dont worry about the bugs most will depart as you split it and what bark falls off as you split it ok but I wouldnt make any effort to remove what doesnt. By the time you are ready to burn it most of the bugs will have found a new home.

 

[luv2byte]

Thanks for the input. We have more than enough wood for this current season so this wood most likely won't be using this stuff this year. Since we've lived in this house, this is our 6th winter, we've been given wood by neighbors clearing land and they don't have a fireplace, friends clearing land and my husband's work clearing some land. We've yet to buy wood. We've received everything from Cherry, Maple, different Birch's and conifers. This year we had to cut down a couple trees on our property, this is what we are finishing up with now. I thought it was 2 spruce and a ? but it was 2 Doug Fir and 1 Spruce. We keep our wood in our barn that is open to air, no doors but is still covered from the rain. The wood we are currently cutting up were the trees we had taken down in June but are now just getting to split. They were cut into 18-24" lengths but the rounds are so big we are getting 12-30 pieces from a single round - these trees were HUGE.

We are finding bugs of all kinds in the bark from larve of different types, bugs that look like ticks to us, ants and termites. So far if the bark comes off easy then we are removing it. Since we have so much wood we know it will not all fit in the barn so we will stack it off to the side and cover with a tarp. We don't expect to use any this year but man will it be nice to not chop wood! We have his and her axes and I look forward to a season of not touching mine

Every year I come back to the forums here to read and learn from everyone - thanks for the kind help. Any input is appreciated.

 

[11 Bravo]

I have used a little ant dust or mixed up some Sevin in the sprayer to get rid of the bugs, but with the exception of large black ants in red oak, and just like the others said, most of the critters seem to move on or get eaten by the birds once ya split it and stack it.

 

[Gooserider]

Bugs need moisture to live on, and once you've split the wood so that it starts to season, and store it properly (off the ground, w/ good ventilation, and possibly some rain protection) it will rapidly dry to the point where it is no longer "desirable real estate" in their view, which will cause them to vacate the premises. Removing the bark helps this process, but is not essential - I'd remove it when it comes off easily, but not waste much effort on bark removal.

If you are storing the wood in a wooden barn, I'd be more worried about having the bugs move into the barn structure than I would be about them staying in the firewood.

Gooserider

 

[begreen]

If you are concerned about the spread of the ants in the barn, be sure to remove all the bark first. Then sprinkle a small amount of plain borax ( the simple laundry powder) around the perimeter of the pile (and barn) to control the ants.

 

[luv2byte]

We are finding ALOT of ticks in the bark so as when it is possible we are removing the bark and spraying the wood before tossing it to the pile for stacking later. Lots of termites and misc bugs but lots of ticks for sure. YUCK. I will be happy when this project is done - its time consuming when each tree round produces up to 30 pieces of wood. These trees were huge - when we had them cut down one tree was so big the guy's 36" bar was not big enough to go through it in one swipe.

We do not have enough room in our barn for the wood so we will be putting it on the edge of our property covered (NOT next to the house). Usually we stack it in the barn then when we need more wood we hitch up a cart to one of our lawn tractors (we have his & her riding mowers) and haul in a load of wood. We put it in a rubbermaid large garden bin that is plastic and enclosed that is in our garage.

I think once stacked I will spray the wood once more and call it good - I have a 24gal electric sprayer I attach to my rider '. Our biggest concern was the number of ticks. Gotta love the country living in Washington. If ants take to the pile it is easy enough to sprinkle some ant dust later - it rains so much here that I will wait on the dust to see what happens.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

 

[begreen]

Let me know if you need some wood relief ;-). Fir is great stuff, though it burns hot.

PS: Can you add your locale to the your control panel setting?

 

[luv2byte]

:gulp: After all the work on these trees we've gone through this year I'm burning and I will enjoy every moment of warm heat they provide. Once I figure out how to post a pic I will. I didn't feel we were making much progres for the amount of work we've done but after looking at the pile from the house I realized how big the piles of wood really are. OOOO warm, cozy wood heat here I come - in 1-2 mo months that is. In our area we don't start burning until Mid Oct usually unless it gets unusually cold early.