Fleas in the wood-pile...

[jtcedinburgh]

As we're new to this wood burning thing, we are having to improvise in how we store our wood - 1/3 being in the greenhouse, the remainder being stacked down the side of the house. However, even with this, we ended up having some overspill which had to sit in the large sacks that the logs were delivered in.

Due to a bit of creative re-organisation, I decided I could finally clear that final bag and stack the logs down the side of the house. Which I did. Got to the bottom of the bag, and it was teeming with fleas. Yeuch! I have to admit to never having actually seen a flea before (despite having furry pets) but there's no mistaking the blighters.

Just thought I'd share that with you. I hope this is a one-off, and not a regular occurence in one's wood-burning lifestyle!

john

PS. I hope I haven't inadvertently transferred any via the logs I'm storing in our utility room (~5 days worth). I s'pose we'll soon find out!

 

[elkimmeg]

I have never heard of fire wood sold in Bags?

 

[jtcedinburgh]

Yeah, each bag contains 250kg or thereabouts - ~1 cubic metre. They are BIG bags.

 

[wg_bent]

Yup...that's a new one on me too. Other than the ones for 5 bucks for 5 splits sold at Stop & Shop....Fleas???? Never heard that one either. Spiders, ticks, mice, chipmunks, snakes....Never heard fleas. Well, ya learn something new every day around here.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like there were a lot of vermin nesting in those wood stacks.

 

[pistonslap]

I have a lot of fleas in my woodpile too. I think the reason being that my wood has been down for 2 years. My buddy has 6 acres and when he built his garage he had the excavator push the trees he cleared into large piles. We cut and split about 15 cord so far with about 30 more still in piles.

 

[BikeMedic2709]

Wood in bags!?!?!?!?!? I'm with Elk... I have never heard of this. Do you have a problem with the wood drying being in a greenhouse?

 

[jtcedinburgh]

I think the wood is in bags due to transportation issues into the local market (Edinburgh) - where it would just be impractical to deliver by other means. Here is a link to the place where I got it from: (broken link removed to http://www.champfleurieestate.co.uk/acatalog/Logs.php)

As far as using the greenhouse is concerned - so far, I find that it greatly accelerates the drying - I cannot prove this in a measured way, but it is certainly quicker than racking the wood (based upon burn quality - how much smoke, etc.)

 

[wtyamamoto]

That's interesting - they dry the wood in crates...

Does that work better than stacking in open air?

Wayne

 

[pistonslap]

I will get at least another year's supply of wood from what's on the ground at my friend's house. That means probably more fleas next year. Is there something I can spray on the wood to kill the fleas that would still leave the wood safe to burn? I have to take my dog to the vet for fleas. That has never been a problem before, so I think it must be from the woodpile.