Last winter I had a major ant problem, thousands of the little things- small brown ants, I think they are argentinian ants, around here they call them sugar ants. Last year I kept nearly a cord of wood in the wood stove room, this year I bring in enough wood to heat for the day and over night and that has helped but I still found a few hundred of these critters running around. The ants tend to live in red fir and come to life quickly in the 100 degree wood stove room. This year we don't have any snow on the ground so I don't mind going out to the wood pile every day, last year about 6 feet of the white stuff. Any ideas out there?
Ants in the wood pile/house
- Thread starter grateful
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
- Status
Unless the ants are inside the log they should go away once the wood is cut. Many times though you will find ants inside the wood and find them only when you do the splitting. Still, occasionally one will find ants when not expected. This is one of the reasons it is recommended to keep the wood pile away from buildings, especially the house. It is also why we do not stack wood in the house except for overnight. Wood should be kept out of doors!
I have found ant nests on many occasions, always inside a hole in a decayed piece that accidentally came into the drying room. They come to life real quickly, overnight in most cases, but for me they have never been a problem because they keep themselves confined to the wood stack itself. I never allow my wood to touch anything but the cement floor or the steel posts I use to hold the sides up. They have no compelling reason to abandon the nest, so they stay put until I disturb things. At that point, I just carry the colonized piece outside and am done with them except for a few stragglers. Unfortunately for them, they probably meet their demise a few at a time inside the stove.
My parents got some small ants that like sweet things on the counter . Worse in the Summer. They hadn't burned wood for 10 years at least.
Seems they were living in the chimney for the furnace (also the woodstove chimney for a while). Cleaned out the ash in the bottom and put some of the ant poison you would normally throw on the lawn in there and they were gone.
Could have been a coincidence, but that's when they disappeared.
Seems they were living in the chimney for the furnace (also the woodstove chimney for a while). Cleaned out the ash in the bottom and put some of the ant poison you would normally throw on the lawn in there and they were gone.
Could have been a coincidence, but that's when they disappeared.
- Status
Similar threads
