Found Ants Buried Deep in Stacked Wood

[velvetfoot]

I don't want to over-react but I found some ants in thie middle of a piece of wood that I was resplitting.l

This wood was stacked for a year on my driveway. We're getting the driveway paved so I moved the wood. In a lazy move, I moved the wood into the garage, where I usually store it. Alas, it appears to be oak, wasn't burning well, so I am in the process now of exchanging the wood for some drier wood.

I had looked over each piece and brushed off each piece of wood before I stacked it in the garage. The piece I just found with the ants were at a branch joint, but nothing visible. The ants didn't appear to be carpenter, but they weren't the real small ones either.

Now, I'm kind of freaked out. It' just so incredibly convenient in the garage. If I hump the wood from the pile in the winter, there'll be snow removal on the top of the tarps, the path, etc, etc.

Am I over-reacting?

 

[rdust]

I believe the ants like a wet environment. Unless your garage offers something better I'd imagine they'll stay in the wood??

I usually only move a weeks worth of wood into the garage at a time and wait until we get a handful of good frosts before doing so.

 

[wood spliter]

I keep a few weeks of wood on the porch. But when it warms up to 40ish I notice the ants moving if they are in the wood. So if I have wood with ants I only bring in what I will burn.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That is just another reason to have the wood piles away from the house. Ants will usually leave when things get dry but it is also amazing how long some will stay, so why take the chance.

I too bring wood to the porch in the winter. As for the tarps, it is best to find something better to cover the wood pile. Something solid works nice.

As for the pushing of snow, one has to ask just how many times per winter you actually have to push snow or clean a path. It really is not that many times. Yes, there are some winters when lots of snow falls or you get snow quite often but overall it is not that many times over one winter. Of course if one lives where there is a lot of lake effect snow then that is something different. A couple hundred inches or more of snow can get to be a bit testy and yes, I've been there. Now I live where there is not that much snow to contend with.