Stacking next to the house .. bug worries?

[stek]

We have a bunch of cherry that was cut this spring and sitting out to season that needs to get stacked under cover, and we have a covered porch that would be handy to stack on. However I grew up with the wisdom that stacking next to the house is an invitation to a bug infestation. However I am lazy and don't want to build a wood shed. However the house is sided with cedar shake, so lots of nooks and crannies. However I still need to get 10 tons of hay in the barn and run a water line 800 feet underground before winter sets in in earnest.

Do I stack on the porch and hope for the best? Or throw some old rotten OSB over it and hope for the best? I did the tarp route last year and found it insufficient.

 

[basswidow]

I have stacked in the garage and on the porch.

Sure is convient.

 

[gzecc]

Spray the area with bug spray before stacking. Continue to spray the house and around the stacks routinely before the cold kicks in, if you need to do it. I would also inspect the splits and not bring splits that have any bug damage close to the house.

 

[bluedogz]

May I suggest that if your house is sided with cedar, you already have wood stacked next to the house?

/end smarta**/

 

[stek]

May I suggest that if your house is sided with cedar, you already have wood stacked next to the house?

/end smarta**/

OH SNAP

Fair points all; we do spray the foundation routinely a couple times a summer. Good idea to pre-spray the area around where we will be stacking for good measure. We've got about 6 cords of the cherry so will still have to do something with most of it, but I like the idea of having some handy on the porch!

 

[golfandwoodnut]

If you can wait for a good freeze before bringing up the wood I think you find most, if not all the bugs will have died or vacated the wood. I am bringing wood up to my deck this year, I do have brick house but living in the woods I get some bugs inside no matter what (especially stink bugs). I have a bug guy come out a couple of times a year but it does not help the stink bugs. I built some traps for them.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've stacked wood on the porch for many years but I wait until it gets cold and some freezing before putting much there. That way there is no bug concern. I had to give my wife the what-not because she liked to bring in more wood than just enough for the morning fire. The reason I don't want it in the house is some bugs thaw out! Also, whenever we put much wood in the warm house, we seem to have moths flying about. Nope. I'd rather keep the wood outdoors until it is needed in the fire. This year will be much easier as we have a new porch and a sliding glass door right by the stove. It will be really easy to take 2 steps and grab the wood then right into the stove it goes.

 

[stek]

Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately) we don't get many days below freezing at all, and many years they don't come till December or January. By that time we are deep in our rainy season (I am in the pacific northwest). Hopefully the cooler weather will make the bugs sleepy enough not to cause trouble...

 

[firefighterjake]

We have a bunch of cherry that was cut this spring and sitting out to season that needs to get stacked under cover, and we have a covered porch that would be handy to stack on. However I grew up with the wisdom that stacking next to the house is an invitation to a bug infestation. However I am lazy and don't want to build a wood shed. However the house is sided with cedar shake, so lots of nooks and crannies. However I still need to get 10 tons of hay in the barn and run a water line 800 feet underground before winter sets in in earnest.

Do I stack on the porch and hope for the best? Or throw some old rotten OSB over it and hope for the best? I did the tarp route last year and found it insufficient.

Random thoughts . . .

Most folks who heat with wood can say they're lazy . . . but they're not . . . not if they're heating their home with wood since heating with wood is work . . . fun work, but work nonetheless.

I think folks with woodsheds are perhaps lazier than some . . . I know I built a woodshed because I was tired and lazy when it came to removing the tarp, shoveling away the snow, etc. Having a woodshed is much easier in the long run.

Stacking next to the house . . . my woodshed is maybe 30 feet away from the house . . . which coincidentally enough is covered in cedar shakes. So far no worries other than the normal bugs who want to nestle there. I also stack wood right up next to the house . . . my "weekly" (well enough wood for a week and a half or so) gets piled up on my covered porch . . . but I try to avoid doing that until the cooler weather sets in . . . just in case . . . no sense making things too nice for the buggers.

 

[billb3]

them bugs party all night, you'll never get any sleep


if I had a covered porch I'd have a 1/4 cord sitting on it by Oct / Nov.


I've used a garbage can and a plastic garbage can shed .
I really hate tarps.

 

[Deron]

Could depend what your porch is made of.

We stack 3 cords on our concrete covered porch, this years we have about 4 1/2 there.

 

[stek]

Hmmm. Porch is open on 3 sides, cedar shake of the house on the 4th side. Floor is marine grade ply painted with porch paint. I was thinking of stacking on two of the open sides, using the wall of the house as the support on one side and the wood 6x6 that holds up the roof as the support on the other side if that makes sense.

Hubby suggested we rip a sheet of ply in half and use that to protect the shingles where the wood touches the house. He was thinking as a bug barrier but I'm thinking it's not a bad idea in general as we don't want to tear up the shingles any more than we want to invite bugs. Each one of those suckers was hand dipped before it went on the house and I have no desire to replace any of them. The ply might look a little trashy but it won't be any worse than the miscellaneous dog bowls, baby toys and horse paraphernalia that winds up there now...

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Doing that you might consider getting some T1-11 siding rather than plywood. You can even paint it if you wish or stain it or even put water seal on it. It certainly would protect the shingles and should not be an eye sore.

 

[xman23]

I do what all have said here. In late Oct., the later the better, I move wood from the stacks, (50 ft from house) the years worth of wood, 2 cords to a ground level covered porch. My wood is dry, which helps keeping the bugs out. I move a weeks worth of wood from this pile up one level to a covered porch just outside the door from the stove. My concern is putting a lot of wood on the elevated deck, it weighs a lot. We do this so we don't have to get wood off a snow covered frozen pile.