Advice on keeping my stacks clean and bug free
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I won't be spraying ON the wood, just around it. No different than treating your yard for bugs or spraying for weeds. Every professional lawn company and golf coarse does it... and everything I bought says its safe for humans and pets. Pretty sure ill be ok.
Mitch Newton
Burning Hunk
Holzstapel
Burning Hunk
I have a can of brake cleaner at the ready in my shed. When i see those giant cave crickets, i nail them with that stuff, they take one last leap and then literally melt into goop.
Yea I'm sure once we hit a hot spell and it dries out they will slowly disappear. Ive been thinking too that after the first winter most anything in them will likely run out from the cold and after that the stacks will be dry enough that I doubt much will even come back.
Just because a lot of people do it does not mean it is good to do, or even safe. Do you want that stuff in your water table? In the birds and frogs and toads? Safe is relative. They said it was safe to spray with BT for gypsy moths. Result: no butterflies or toads or frogs for two decades, still no where near where we were before they sprayed.
How important is it to have a perfect lawn? Better to have a healthy environment. If you never use the poisons, the natural order will take over and you won't have an excessive problem with pests. We have never used any in our vegetable garden, and we have never had any crop damage. Don't use any in or near my stacks. Sure, I'll see carpenter ants under bark when I am splitting. They take off during the splitting process. Never have a problem with them in my stacks. There are millions of them in the woods. Yo u are not going to get rid of the ants, but you surely may kill birds, toads, frogs snakes that eat the ants. And may do nice things to your water table. Poisons should only be used when they are unavoidable. Just how important in the larger scheme of things is velvet lawn?
Hahahahahaha. Oh man, stop, stop, you're killing me. DONE? You're kidding, right? Hahahahahaha. Whew, laughing so hard, I'm cryin'.
This is a lifestyle, and unless you quit it, you're NEVER done.
We had some tiny little bugs in the wood a few years ago when the wood was less than dry, not much of a problem any more.
Ants generally only hang around when the wood is wet or damp.....it's part of what attracts them.
Since moving to the woods from the city, I've changed my outlook on sprays and chemicals. I don't like them. They find their way into the air we breath and the water we drink and the ground we grow food in. Bad juju.
Bugs are everywhere, ......everywhere, and you will lose the war. You might feel like you've won, but it's just one small battle in the grand scheme of things.
ETA: looks like rideau and I were typing almost in unison.
"Every professional lawn company and golf coarse does it"
I gotta' use this one.......if your friends poked themselves in the eye, would you too?
Heard stuff like that growing up.....still good to think about.
We have a decent yard, and woods all around. However, the bugs are in control, and I merely have a small semblance of control over the yard. If I were to spray for stuff, they'd be back in very short order and probably more resistant to the stuff I was using attempt to eradicate them.
My wife wanted to spray for mosquitoes until I mentioned the ditches filled with water and the wetlands we have to the north and east on our property. Not to mention all the little puddles all over in the woods.
Take a look at the Emerald Ash borer situation.
Big picture.
I gotta' use this one.......if your friends poked themselves in the eye, would you too?
Heard stuff like that growing up.....still good to think about.
We have a decent yard, and woods all around. However, the bugs are in control, and I merely have a small semblance of control over the yard. If I were to spray for stuff, they'd be back in very short order and probably more resistant to the stuff I was using attempt to eradicate them.
My wife wanted to spray for mosquitoes until I mentioned the ditches filled with water and the wetlands we have to the north and east on our property. Not to mention all the little puddles all over in the woods.
Take a look at the Emerald Ash borer situation.
Big picture.
I gotta' use this one.......if your friends poked themselves in the eye, would you too?
Heard stuff like that growing up.....still good to think about.
We have a decent yard, and woods all around. However, the bugs are in control, and I merely have a small semblance of control over the yard. If I were to spray for stuff, they'd be back in very short order and probably more resistant to the stuff I was using attempt to eradicate them.
My wife wanted to spray for mosquitoes until I mentioned the ditches filled with water and the wetlands we have to the north and east on our property. Not to mention all the little puddles all over in the woods.
Take a look at the Emerald Ash borer situation.
Big picture.
Only problem with this post is that now it reads as if I am the one advocating use of poison...
It was NOT Rideau who said...
Hahahahahaha. Oh man, stop, stop, you're killing me. DONE? You're kidding, right? Hahahahahaha. Whew, laughing so hard, I'm cryin'.
This is a lifestyle, and unless you quit it, you're NEVER done.
We had some tiny little bugs in the wood a few years ago when the wood was less than dry, not much of a problem any more.
Ants generally only hang around when the wood is wet or damp.....it's part of what attracts them.
Since moving to the woods from the city, I've changed my outlook on sprays and chemicals. I don't like them. They find their way into the air we breath and the water we drink and the ground we grow food in. Bad juju.
Bugs are everywhere, ......everywhere, and you will lose the war. You might feel like you've won, but it's just one small battle in the grand scheme of things.
ETA: looks like rideau and I were typing almost in unison.
Ok you got me Dave. I meant I'm done getting ahead. I'm still keeping an eye out for wood and def plan on scrounging again this winter to replace what I use each year. That is far different than going from 0-15 cords in 9 months
If I add a cord or two of some nice hard wood I'll be more than happy, but I'm not gonna be losing sleep over it anymore. As far as the bugs, I see your guys' point. The whole reason I started this thread was to make sure the bugs were ok. Will I treat for them still, maybe... But at least I know now that they aren't a problem if they are there.
FYI: I don't treat my yard at all, just mow regularly and weed kill what I don't want to weed eat... Like around my stacks.
Just messin' with ya. Been there and done it, as have a goodly # of those here.
Now that you're ahead of it, the game changes. You've already got it figured out, and that's the good part.
Takes some folks a long time to get where you are in attitude and inventory.
I probably sounded like I was raggin' some, but once you get into this a bit more, you'll see the un-necessity of trying to eradicate the wood bugs......they'll mostly leave on their own after awhile.
Take a break for a minute, then get back to work.
I took the weedwhacker to the stacks today, but didn't get far. Ran out of line. Gotta go refill and get those outta there....they're stalling windflow and sun to the bottom of the stacks.
Now that you're ahead of it, the game changes. You've already got it figured out, and that's the good part.
Takes some folks a long time to get where you are in attitude and inventory.
I probably sounded like I was raggin' some, but once you get into this a bit more, you'll see the un-necessity of trying to eradicate the wood bugs......they'll mostly leave on their own after awhile.
Take a break for a minute, then get back to work.
I took the weedwhacker to the stacks today, but didn't get far. Ran out of line.
Gotta go refill and get those outta there....they're stalling windflow and sun to the bottom of the stacks.
First thought that came to my mind was the miracle spray we had in the 1950's. Wonderful stuff it was and it did seem to work wonders. However, it was later banned and rightly so. You might have heard of it at some time. It was called DDT.
Hmmm never heard of it Dennis. I'm sure it was banned for good reason.
Don't get me wrong here guys, I don't want to kill off everything I see with a spray or seed, I just want to have clean stacks and a clean healthy yard... and I do believe there is a happy median here. I don't want ants in my house so I spray my perimeter of my house each spring to keep them out. That doesnt mean I'm killing everything in the yard... Hence I don't treat the yard, just what tries to get into the house. I Kinda see the stacks the same way, I want to keep them clean and tidy and that doesn't mean killing everything... Just doing a little preventative maintenance.
I had a log load delivered in Feb '12. I'm down to proccessing the last cord of that & raking up the leaves & bark waste. I also just split some of my new score.
Maybe it's due to the 10" of freaking rain we've had in the last 2 weeks, but there have been carpenter ants crawling all over my wood area, carrying egg sacks, etc. It looked like the ground was moving.
2 days ago I treated the lawn for grubs & insects with Bayer Spectracide, and used my little hand held broadcast spreader to treat around the wood piles.....This afternoon I saw only a couple of carpenter ants.
Maybe it's due to the 10" of freaking rain we've had in the last 2 weeks, but there have been carpenter ants crawling all over my wood area, carrying egg sacks, etc. It looked like the ground was moving.
2 days ago I treated the lawn for grubs & insects with Bayer Spectracide, and used my little hand held broadcast spreader to treat around the wood piles.....This afternoon I saw only a couple of carpenter ants.
I had a log load delivered in Feb '12. I'm down to proccessing the last cord of that & raking up the leaves & bark waste. I also just split some of my new score.
Maybe it's due to the 10" of freaking rain we've had in the last 2 weeks, but there have been carpenter ants crawling all over my wood area, carrying egg sacks, etc. It looked like the ground was moving.
2 days ago I treated the lawn for grubs & insects with Bayer Spectracide, and used my little hand held broadcast spreader to treat around the wood piles.....This afternoon I saw only a couple of carpenter ants.
Hey Stash, glad to hear it helped! I just did the same thing to my stacks today. I didn't treat the yard but I did get the Ortho Bug-B-Gon and spread it around the stacks with my hand spreader. Hopefully I see some results as well
Ram 1500 with an axe...
Minister of Fire
I say there is nothing wrong with spraying an appropriate pesticide to control bugs that don't belong in the spots that they take up, I have a batting cage in my back yard, I had little girls getting eaten by Mosquitos, so I bought some good stuff for indoors and out, it worked out well, I don't want to wipe out entire colonies but you do need to control where they habitat, whether it is inside your house or on your wood stack, some people can live with them in there house, some can live with them in their wood stack. I'm just saying, I'd rather control them if they are bothersome....
The lot used to be wooded. When the house was built in '96 the VA loan required spraying for termite treatment. I used to do an annual treatment of Diazinon because I had a carpenter any problem even before I began burning wood. I prefer to keep those critters dead.
Exactly Ram, I think this is probably more of a preference thing... And I prefer to keep them out of my stacks as much as I can.
Ram 1500 with an axe...
Minister of Fire
And another thing, I continuously have to spray for weeds, or they will take over growing to huge proportions all over the place. What is the difference between bugs and weeds? I'm only asking.... I want to learn too...
pyroholic
Member
Just messin' with ya. Been there and done it, as have a goodly # of those here.
Now that you're ahead of it, the game changes. You've already got it figured out, and that's the good part.
Takes some folks a long time to get where you are in attitude and inventory.
I probably sounded like I was raggin' some, but once you get into this a bit more, you'll see the un-necessity of trying to eradicate the wood bugs......they'll mostly leave on their own after awhile.
Take a break for a minute, then get back to work.
I took the weedwhacker to the stacks today, but didn't get far. Ran out of line.
Thanks Dave, for some reason I didn't see this post earlier. That is half the reason I weed eat and weed kill my stacks is to keep the wind underneath them and keep the moisture and shade from the grass out... And I like the look of nice clean stacks since they are in my back yard. I do believe you guys are right and I doubt I will treat my piles for bugs in the future. Im not as concerned now about it after talking to you guys but I already bought the granular so I figured i mine as well try it this time.
Believe it is really sharp and kills them if they get it on them. Not very scientific answer.
That could be true. I was told DE is ground up insect skeletons so it could very well be sharp. We use to put it in our pool to flush and clean up the filter system.
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