Stopping Bugs

[Gboutdoors]

I use mice to eat what few bugs are in my stacks. Then the snakes eat the mice. Then the owls eat the snakes. Then I burn the wood. It's called the circle of life.

 

[Jeffm1]

This is what I use for my pool filter, and I have a ton of it. How can it be used for bug control? Never heard of it used that way.

Just sprinkle it on and around your wood piles. Way too much information out there to try and pick one single link to post. Just google "food grade diatomaceous earth bug killer"

 

[Jeffm1]

Diatomaceous earth is a fine abrasive. It abrades the joints of insect wings and legs I believe. It's fairly benign in humans until you breath the dust. Then it's very bad. I can't see how it would be very useful to control insects around a woodpile.

Hell, some people even eat the stuff if it's food grade. It's that safe. (Not that I do though)
http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/5-benefits-of-diatomaceous-earth/

 

[Jeffm1]

A DE primer for inquiring minds:
https://supplementpolice.com/food-grade-diatomaceous-earth/
Note: For information purposes only. I am not advocating use as food supplement, only as a way to control bugs.

 

[blades]

aw heck,just light up the whole stack - problem solved no more bugs. d -earth to bugs about like you rolling in short glass fibers .

 

[fishki]

I can handle anything anything but spiders and snakes, I'll be flipping logs over with a rake.

 

[Coyoterun]

TSP in solution at almost any concentration will carry a pH less than 10.0, much less than NaOH. It is not at all corrosive, you have that part backward.

Wiki may not be the most reliable of sources, but for this purpose it's probably adequate:

"Trisodium phosphate was at one time extensively used in formulations for a variety of consumer grade soaps and detergents, and the most common use for trisodium phosphate has been in cleaning agents. The pH of a 1% solution is 12 (i.e., very basic), and the solution is sufficiently alkaline to saponify grease and oils."

I suppose that is still less than a 1% solution of NaOH, but I don't want to wash my hands in either one.

TSP is not a liquid and will not form a gas that is easily transported through your chimney to affect anything in it so unless there is some other ingredient that the TSP interacts with to form a gas (fumes) you are probably going to be sweeping raw TSP from the stove after you use one of those dubious snake oil products.
As far as common chemicals present in a stove burning carbon in the presence of air and thus benign, consider the 2 most abundant chemicals in the stove, carbon and the 80% of air that is nitrogen. A direct reaction between those chemicals makes cyanide, CN. I know how dumbed down some arguments of "natural food advocates and tree huggers" has become but just because the components are shared with something in your stove does not mean I want to be exposed to it, even in low concentrations.

When you heat TSP to woodstove temps, it's gonna ionize. And it's gonna be carried along in the draft. Given the supply of hydrogen and oxygen it's pretty likely you'll have NaOH condensing out in the flue, among other things. So if you actually soaked your entire wood supply in a strong solution of TSP in water, you would get some pretty nasty fumes when you burned it.

But I didn't say that wood smoke is benign. It's not. It's loaded with carcinogenic and toxic compounds, not unlike tobacco smoke. That's true even of the most virgin old growth firewood cut by flint axes in the prehistoric era, despite what some people seem to think.

What I did mean to imply is that applying about one gram of beta-cyfluthrin to a cord of firewood (multiple tons of wood) is not going to change the toxicity of the resulting smoke when you burn the firewood, especially if there are a few months in between spraying and burning. It's not something you want to breathe a lot of either way**. However, uneaten wood is going to have a lot more BTU's than insect frass, and my wood pile isn't intended as a buffet.



(**although we don't mind soaking our food in it for some reason, even though "the National Cancer Institute reports that many epidemiological studies exist that connect high consumption of smoked, grilled or barbecued meat with increased risk of prostate, colorectal and pancreatic cancers." Sometimes the taste is worth it. )

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

I use mice to eat what few bugs are in my stacks. Then the snakes eat the mice. Then the owls eat the snakes. Then I burn the wood. It's called the circle of life.

I let the birds eat them. They're good at that.

 

[Gboutdoors]

I forgot the great job the girls do.

Yup circle of life.

 

[Jags]

I simply wait till it is cold out and then burn them - in my stove. That is one reason that all my wood stays in cold storage until it enters my stove. Bugs, if there are any get vaporized before their little bug brains get warm enough to start working again.

 

[maple1]

Are we sure there is an actual bug problem?

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

I can handle anything anything but spiders and snakes, I'll be flipping logs over with a rake.

If your wood stack is away from other combustibles you could try dumping a bottle of alcohol all over it and tossing a match on it. This should vaporize the little critters. Then you can give it a quick hose down before the wood catches on fire.

 

[Gboutdoors]

Oh ya the turkeys like to help out to.

Headed for dinner

Nice of them to stop by.

 

[venator260]

I've never had a problem with an over-abundance of bugs in wood. I grew up with a woodstove and have had a house with one for 2 winters now. I've killed a few spiders, all in the (basement) room where I have the storage capacity for about 1.5 cords of wood. But there's spiders down there in the summer too, so I have no idea what is coming from my woodpile and what made it's way in via other means. I've never been motivated to use any control methods save the soles of my shoes.

If you split some wood with ants in it... stack it and let it be. I find black and red ants in wood all the time. They've never been there when I'm moving wood to burn; they leave either when the wood dries or because they're disturbed. Either way, they haven't hitched a ride into my house.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

Nice of them to stop by

What material are you using to cover your stacks?

 

[metrowlogger]

If you have wood with bugs your only option is to burn it.

 

[Gboutdoors]

What material are you using to cover your stacks?

Those are 20x4 pallets that Kleer plastic trim comes on. I keep the cover that comes on them and use it for the wood. As you can see they fit like a glove come down a foot on all sides. Great way to stack 2 1/2 cord at a time.

 

[Gboutdoors]

 

[neverbilly]

Gboutdoors, what is that building in your picture? The siding is interesting/attractive. Looks like vinyl siding or something and then also unpainted lumber. Is the right side a door? What is this used for, storage or what?

Your stacks look awesome. How do you score those big pallets and how do you get them home, lol?

What is Kleer plastic trim?