Having some nice scrounging success at the town DPW yard - there is an area where they dump logs too big for the chipper and it is now a regular stop when I am doing errands. The last couple of loads I have scored are large diameter oak which were pretty well infested with carpenter ants - those babies are dead and I suspect they burn well but just wondering if this wood will be home to army of new ones next spring? Are there eggs that will hatch when the weather warms up? My woodpile is away from house but just curious...................thanks!
Carpenter Ants / Scrounger Score
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I have found that wood that has been split and stacked will not support a colony. They really need damp and dark . However I would stack at least 100 feet from my home and stack it loose.
zzr7ky
Minister of Fire
- Jun 12, 2006
- 1,053
Hi -
I've noticed they die or leave one the wood is bucked, and definately once split. I've shacked some in stacks that layed around a couple years and there were no ants when I burned the splits.
That said I do sprinckle a fair dose of Borax around my buildings most years in the spring. It deters termites and wood ants.
ATB,
Mike
I've noticed they die or leave one the wood is bucked, and definately once split. I've shacked some in stacks that layed around a couple years and there were no ants when I burned the splits.
That said I do sprinckle a fair dose of Borax around my buildings most years in the spring. It deters termites and wood ants.
ATB,
Mike
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Buck up to length, split and leave them off a bit from the rest of your wood . . . preferably somewhere warm and dry and easily available to the local bird population . . . when you get ready to stack the wood a few months from now you will most likely find them bug free . . . and find some pretty happy, fat birds.
The eggs have to be tended to constantly and a proper temperature provided. Usually about just right inside tree.
From what I've seen and read they are usually a colony of little families.
Personnaly, I'd avoid that wood unless you have a quarantine spot. That you can contaminate the ground around the stacks ( most poisons available today don't persist very long).
I have carpenter ants in a few of the oak trees here ( I've been spreading poisons around the bases of any trees they are in or are farming). When I disturb a tree ( or one falls in a wind storm and there colonies are disturbed) they go out looking for new homes. They'll carve out little bowls in stacked wood, even 4x4 laying on top of each other to be undisturbed while it is cold. They won't all survive to build up new colonies, but they will persist for a while even without a queen to lay eggs for new queen(s) and then workers.
They will usually mostly leave splits, but there can be some Wintering over even in splits . Especially larger splits.
They won't build a colony , but they'll Winter over. A big round will support a small colony for a while, though.
I find small groups all the time. Usually there is no queen , so I don't know what happens to them.
A few workers found here and there don't bother me as much as finding queens.
Any rounds heavily infested that I leave in the woods I come back in early Spring and spread poison and borax on and around. Then I come back later and tip the rounds over and bust them up to make sure there are lots of corpses. I want to kill them, not just drive them into new digs, so I provide them with homes ( the rounds they were in) until busting them up proves they are gone.
Borax kills grass.
Careful using it on the lawn.
From what I've seen and read they are usually a colony of little families.
Personnaly, I'd avoid that wood unless you have a quarantine spot. That you can contaminate the ground around the stacks ( most poisons available today don't persist very long).
I have carpenter ants in a few of the oak trees here ( I've been spreading poisons around the bases of any trees they are in or are farming). When I disturb a tree ( or one falls in a wind storm and there colonies are disturbed) they go out looking for new homes. They'll carve out little bowls in stacked wood, even 4x4 laying on top of each other to be undisturbed while it is cold. They won't all survive to build up new colonies, but they will persist for a while even without a queen to lay eggs for new queen(s) and then workers.
They will usually mostly leave splits, but there can be some Wintering over even in splits . Especially larger splits.
They won't build a colony , but they'll Winter over. A big round will support a small colony for a while, though.
I find small groups all the time. Usually there is no queen , so I don't know what happens to them.
A few workers found here and there don't bother me as much as finding queens.
Any rounds heavily infested that I leave in the woods I come back in early Spring and spread poison and borax on and around. Then I come back later and tip the rounds over and bust them up to make sure there are lots of corpses. I want to kill them, not just drive them into new digs, so I provide them with homes ( the rounds they were in) until busting them up proves they are gone.
Borax kills grass.
Careful using it on the lawn.
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
I have lots of wood that came with carpenter ants. I split the ant filled pieces small enough to open up most of the any tunnels, and spread the pieces in the yard for a while. in the summer, the ants leave (or die?). I don't know how it would work in the winter. So far I haven't had any carpenter ants in my stacked, split wood. haven't used any poisons.
Thistle
Minister of Fire
Same here.Especially various Red/Black Oak that was standing dead or on the ground for a while.Currently burning some dead several-yrs standing Red/Black from a couple trees that I dropped last month.About 1/2 of it had quite a few holes/tunnels in it & the usual punkiness in spots.I split them where they fell,spread them out & let them sit until hauling the wood home 2 days ago.Is burning very clean,not quite as long as some of my other wood,but with a nice bluish-white flame.
As the wood dries out they die.
We had an ice storm a few years ago that dropped a bunch of mature silver maple around the neighborhood. I gathered it and split it and stacked as I got to it. I found lots of ants, but when it came time to burn it a few years later it was ant free.
Matt
We had an ice storm a few years ago that dropped a bunch of mature silver maple around the neighborhood. I gathered it and split it and stacked as I got to it. I found lots of ants, but when it came time to burn it a few years later it was ant free.
Matt
Raptor
New Member
I have cut plenty of downed trees in the woods that harbored ant colonies. When I get the rounds home I split up the infested ones into small splits, knock out as many of the critters as possible and stack them with the rest of the wood. If I see a queen in the process I make sure she "disappears". The wood is processed and stacked at least 200 feet from the house so I don't worry about the ants. I have noticed the chickens hanging around those wood piles for several days after the wood was split and stacked. I am currently burning wood that I put up a year ago that was heavily infested and haven't seen a single ant.
Flatbedford
Minister of Fire
Dix
Minister of Fire
Did you know if you burn an active carpenter ant colony the ants emit a type of scream? I found this out a few years ago when we removed a carpenter ant colony, put the whole thing in a wheel barrel and dumped it in the garden and doused it with gas and lit it up. Interesting sound........
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Shari said:
You sure that wasn't your husband screaming from the third degree burns that occurred from the resulting fire ball?
On a serious side . . . to Shari . . . or anyone else . . . please do not use gasoline to start a fire -- inside or outside of the home . . . use what all good arsonists use when setting a fire to avoid detection . . . cardboard . . . give me a decent sized cardboard box and I can light up a pile of green brush in the rain in the spring time . . . trust me on this . . .
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Remmy122 said:
Split them . . . and they will leave . . . I tend to toss my ant-infested splits to the side before putting them in the stack.
Think of it this way . . . if the Jolly Green Giant was in a foul mood and came to your house and first buzzed your house right in two with a gigantic Stihl chainsaw and then . . . just when you thought the worse was over and you were mourning the loss of your 75 close brothers and sisters who happened to live in the house with you the Jolly Green Guy then started whacking what was left of your Colonial, Cape or Ranch or what have you into even smaller pieces with a humongous Fiskars causing even more carnage you probably would start looking for a new home somewhere else.
I did let them sit over night, Today Ive noticed Im the most popular house on the block for our local feathered friends. I think the problems solved.
I split them pretty small so I think that will do it once we get a nice cold snap in here (50* the past 2-3 days)
I split them pretty small so I think that will do it once we get a nice cold snap in here (50* the past 2-3 days)
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