Proactive wood pile pest control?

[JP11]

I will be stacking close to a cord in my garage. It's got cement radiant heat, a center floor drain, and cement up about a foot, then wood studs with sheetrock.

What do you guys do for pest control? I've seen some litter buggers sleeping (and with the warmer weather now, starting to move around) in some splits.

I've got some ant powder that I've put around by the doors and such in the past.

Thoughts?

 

[ScotO]

You are going to have issues with spiders, ants, beetles, etc when you store wood indoors. I only bring a weeks worth at a time into my unfinished basement during the burning season when it is cold outside and the bugs are dormant and I STILL get spiders here and there. I would recommend you only store wood indoors when you are burning and even then only a weeks worth or so at a time. You don't want chemicals all over your firewood and in your garage, that wouldn't be good to burn wood that's been treated for insects....just my .02 cents.

 

[JP11]

Thanks.. I wasn't planning on spraying or treating the wood. More like... spray or sprinkle some stuff AROUND the pallets of wood. I've already got spiders and beetles. I was more worried about something like termites attacking my home itself.

JP

 

[RORY12553]

Just out of curiosity why would you stack wood indoors right now?

 

[NH_Wood]

Just out of curiosity why would you stack wood indoors right now?

+1 - do you plan to stack this cord now, or do you mean to stack later (late fall perhaps) and are wondering about managing for pests then? I agree with the others: don't stack wood inside during the non-burning season (pests, mold, etc., etc.). Cheers!

 

[ScotO]

And just a little advice, if I find termites in firewood it never even makes it to my stack. If you find evidence of termites in your woodpile, you've got problems that need tending to. Termites (at least the ones we deal with) are subterranean (the colony is in the ground and the bugs you see in the wood are workers/soldiers. I never bring wood home that has termites in it (had termite problems in the house years ago, don't wanna go through that ever again!).

 

[velvetfoot]

In my case, I still probably have close to 2 cords left in the garage. I was thinking of painting the plywood I had screwed onto the wall, but I'm tired of moving wood here, moving wood there, so I'll probably just leave it there. The wood splits do have the powder post beetle frass piles (when do they hatch, anyway?).

 

[ScotO]

While stacking walnut the other day I noticed some powderpost beetles on the silver maple.

 

[weatherguy]

This is safe and gets rid of some bugs, spiders for sure but you may want the spiders to eat the other bugs

http://www.lowes.com/pd_93648-316-HG-93186_?PL=1&productId=3276739

 

[JP11]

I'm going to burn year round.. and wood is all on pallets for transport with the tractor. I'll keep one inside in summer. I was figuring 3 (a full cord) during winter.

I don't have any wood "piles" at all. I have some piles of rounds, but from the splitter they get stacked on pallets and put up to dry.

JP

 

[woodsmaster]

Here's what I used to do my crawl space to get rid of PPB. I also did my boiler shed and shop around the bottom of the walls and under the windows when I built them as a preventitive measure. I used the Timbor on the new construction and the boracare on the allready infested crawlspace.
http://www.pestmall.com/powder-post-beetle-control-products/

 

[chuckie5fingers]

JP: even just borax from the hardware store would be good I believe..

chuck

 

[JP11]

JP: even just borax from the hardware store would be good I believe..

chuck

Thanks Chuck.. I'll give it a try.

 

[Mr A]

Pest control is an interesting subject. Often when collecting wood scrounge, it is full of ants, beattles, spiders, termites, etc. Live trees have pests, stacked wood attracts pests. I am just starting in my wood collecting experience this year. I am fortunate to have hot summers in my area. I was thinking to cover my stacks with black plastic to solarize, ie, cook the bugs out it. If they don't leave, they will die from the extreme heat under the plastic. This is something I have done in gardening, cover the soil with plastic, and it cooks the undesirable weed seeds and insect larvae out of the soil.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

I'm going to burn year round..

JP

Just out of curiosity why do you burn year round? Does it heat your water?

 

[woodsmaster]

Since I treated my crawlspace with boracare the spider population in the house has decreased about 90%.

 

[JP11]

Just out of curiosity why do you burn year round? Does it heat your water?

yes. I put an hour meter on and it's about 1.2 to 1.5 hours per day average for DHW if I let the oil boiler run. Now, it's a bit cheaper as I make biodiesel... but if I weren't.. that's 5 bucks a day year round.. I have a 80 gallon indirect that is one zone of my system. So.... I'll keep the tanks warm with a fire every 4 or 5 days I'm hoping.