Bugs Beetles Spiders O My!

[gyrfalcon]

"Snakes...I hate snakes!" - Indiana Jones

(I don't like 'em any better than he, or Lee.) Rick

Snakes eat voles and mice, no? I'll take the snakes, thanks. They don't eat my vegetables, particularly the potatoes, but the voles do. Give 'em a wide berth and let 'em chow down.

Oh, raptor, most wholeheartedly agreed. I don't go out and hunt them down just to kill them. I only ever remember killing two snakes, and one was inadvertent but fortuitous. I know they play an important role...they just kinda give me the creeps. I observe them and mostly just leave them be to do their thing. The hawks, owls, and other raptors also participate to keep things in balance. I'm content to just watch in wonder at the poetry of nature. Rick

Man, you said it! But snakes don't particularly give me the willies like they do some people. I keep a respectful distance. I'm not in an area where there are poisonous ones, so no need for legitimate fear. I dislike personally killing things because their attempts to make a living are inconvenient for me. I've reconciled myself to having to kill the field mice that invade the house when the weather gets cold, but I don't like it. The world of nature basically runs on killing, and that seems like plenty without my adding to it gratuitously. Raptors (no surprise) I find particularly fascinating, and hope one winter to find one of my namesake falcons hanging out in my part of the valley. But if so, I'll keep the cats in until it moves on.

 

[WoodMann]

................ I s'pose you could keep a couple of snakes in the basement to control this problem. Rick

Either that or a young, sharp cat. Another reason, too that I debark my wood..............

 

[Andy99]

OK dont let my wife see this thread. I talked her into getting the stove after she was worried about the house smelling like smoke. (its getting installed the end of July) Im going to have 3 cords of seasoned and 1 cord of fresh cut wood by the end of July. And Im going to keep accumulating as much wood as I can. My wife has no idea how much space all this wood is going to take up. Im going to have to deal with the shock of having 1/4 of my back yard filled with wood. Now if she finds out about Mice, snakes and BUGS that might be the last straw. Dont most of you bring wood into the house in batches. I would like to only have to go out to the wood pile once a day and bringing in enough wood to last 24 hours. Will i have bugs in the house as the wood warms up. If thats the case she will flip out?

Andy


PS no way i would ever put 4 cords of wood in my basement.

 

[gyrfalcon]

OK dont let my wife see this thread. I talked her into getting the stove after she was worried about the house smelling like smoke. (its getting installed the end of July) Im going to have 3 cords of seasoned and 1 cord of fresh cut wood by the end of July. And Im going to keep accumulating as much wood as I can. My wife has no idea how much space all this wood is going to take up. Im going to have to deal with the shock of having 1/4 of my back yard filled with wood. Now if she finds out about Mice, snakes and BUGS that might be the last straw. Dont most of you bring wood into the house in batches. I would like to only have to go out to the wood pile once a day and bringing in enough wood to last 24 hours. Will i have bugs in the house as the wood warms up. If thats the case she will flip out?

Andy


PS no way i would ever put 4 cords of wood in my basement.

I usually try to have a couple days' worth in the house so I'm not putting ice cold and/or wet wood into the stove. I see a bug occasionally, but nothing really gross, just an ant or two or a small beetle. Depending on what kind of wood you're getting, the bark usually falls off or comes off easily when it's seasoned, and if you leave that outside somewhere, you'll have a lot fewer bugs since most of them hang out underneath the bark.

It is messy, though, and there's no getting around that. I'd suggest you keep a dustpan and brush handy and sweep up the detritus every time you tend the stove if you want your wife not to flip out.

Have you thought what you will use to carry wood into the house? How about where and how you're going to store your inside supply?

I would advise you get yourself a good supply of medium and large dry kindling and a bag of fatwood or other firestarters, too, in addition to lots of newspaper. It will take quite a while to get the hang of getting a good sustained fire in your stove and you'll need stuff you can cheat with until you do. And make sure you've got or can make plenty of small splits to play with.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Well don't discount getting into trouble with the smell of smoke. We've been using a "slammer" for 20 years (had a new Quadrafire 4100-I) installed last month, and the complaints about the smell of an old fire got worse year after year. The smell is still a (minor, I hope) problem after cleaning, rotor cleaning, washing and scrubbing out the fire chamber and careful cleaning of the smoke shelf. The problem basically depends on how sensitive "the" wife's nose is. Mine can smell after shave at 100 yards. She doesn't like after shave, well none that I've tried over the years.


And here's a picture of my pet snake, he isn't living in my wood pile as far as I know.

 

[crazy_dan]

I have to agree with Lee
A snake in my yard= dead snake in my yard.

espeacialy after what I was told by our conservation agent. He told me that for the past few years black snakes and copper heads have been cross-breeding and they have found some black snakes with fangs and venom.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I have to agree with Lee
A snake in my yard= dead snake in my yard.

espeacialy after what I was told by our conservation agent. He told me that for the past few years black snakes and copper heads have been cross-breeding and they have found some black snakes with fangs and venom.

Crazy Dan, your conservation agent doesn't know what he's talking about. Black snakes lay eggs, copperheads have live young. They cannot cross-breed. I've heard the rumor probably got started because young black snakes have gray patterning on their bodies before they turn all black and somebody saw that and thought it meant the snakes were interbreeding.

They're not. They cannot. That's one thing, at least, you don't need to worry about.

 

[savageactor7]

Not fond of snakes but I let 'em be. Never saw any in the wood pile before but have noticed a few snake skins around the wood. Fortunately where we are there's no deadly rattler type snakes around here. Bugs and insects seems to go away when the wood dries out.

 

[Andy99]

Well don't discount getting into trouble with the smell of smoke. We've been using a "slammer" for 20 years (had a new Quadrafire 4100-I) installed last month, and the complaints about the smell of an old fire got worse year after year. The smell is still a (minor, I hope) problem after cleaning, rotor cleaning, washing and scrubbing out the fire chamber and careful cleaning of the smoke shelf. The problem basically depends on how sensitive "the" wife's nose is. Mine can smell after shave at 100 yards. She doesn't like after shave, well none that I've tried over the years.


And here's a picture of my pet snake, he isn't living in my wood pile as far as I know.

Great Im in real trouble. But we dont have much choice I cant afford the oil at the price it is so I used my stimulus check to pay for the stove. I just hope the smoke smell isnt too bad. I promised her it wouldnt smell like we were camping....

 

[fossil]

I don't have any sort of smoke or "old fire" smell with either of my stoves. Neither one is piped up through an old existing chimney, and they both have good draft. Once in a great while, I'll get a bit of smoke in the room while reloading or tending the fire, but if I remember to open the bypass for a minute or two before opening the door, even that doesn't happen. Rick

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I too have big hopes for my new "code" installation of the Quadrafire with 6" stainless steel liner. I think our problem came mostly from the large amount of creosote that had built up and glazed the masonry chimney over the years. My point is some people have very sensitive noses. My recommendation is to not mention the subject, let her notice on her own if she can. Something has her "spooked". Humid weather adds to the problem and we air condition when it is H&H;.

 

[RedRanger]

"Snakes...I hate snakes!" - Indiana Jones

(I don't like 'em any better than he, or Lee.) Rick

Snakes eat voles and mice, no? I'll take the snakes, thanks. They don't eat my vegetables, particularly the potatoes, but the voles do. Give 'em a wide berth and let 'em chow down.

We are over run with chicken hawks and eagles here. Not a mouse, squirl, rat ,cat, or small furball dare venture into the open or a garden. Lately I have been seeing eagles feeding on gosling Canadian Geese which also does not hurt my feelings as they are just a filthy winged rat.

I`ll take things with wings anyday over things with no legs. creepy, creepy :ahhh:

 

[gibson]

I have lived in New England for my whole life, the last twenty years in areas with plenty of wildlife. Deer,Wolves, Coyotes, Possum, Woodchucks, etc. I have only seen maybe 10 snakes in my 38 years. Maybe I haven't been looking hard enough. I don't have the snake phobia, but I saw a dead water mocassin out on the Outer Banks on vacation this year. All set with that. We don't have any poisonous snakes in RI that I know of, so I'll let em be! I could use a few more garters and greenies to get rid of all of the spiders on my property. Hopefully my wood pile will take care of that!

 

[gibson]

oops

 

[woodconvert]

[quote author="Andy99" date="1214689592"]OK dont let my wife see this thread. I talked her into getting the stove after she was worried about the house smelling like smoke. quote]

Well....it's been my sperience' that when the wife is sitting in a 75F+ living room in the middle of the perfect stom in the middle of January that a lot of those lil' details fall by the roadside.

If your chimney is clean, wood is good and all is functioning properly then you shouldn't get any...or much...woodsmoke smell. As far as the mess, it's up to you how you bring wood in. It's very managable.

 

[crazy_dan]

I have to agree with Lee
A snake in my yard= dead snake in my yard.

espeacialy after what I was told by our conservation agent. He told me that for the past few years black snakes and copper heads have been cross-breeding and they have found some black snakes with fangs and venom.

Crazy Dan, your conservation agent doesn't know what he's talking about. Black snakes lay eggs, copperheads have live young. They cannot cross-breed. I've heard the rumor probably got started because young black snakes have gray patterning on their bodies before they turn all black and somebody saw that and thought it meant the snakes were interbreeding.

They're not. They cannot. That's one thing, at least, you don't need to worry about.

I was actually coming back to this thread to debunk my misinformation. (sorry did not check facts before repeating them).
I did some checking on my own and yes you are correct they cannot produce viable offspring.
also seams that the myth that they interbreed during floods is still very popular and with the floods this year seams it has resurfaced.
I plan on calling the mdc agent Monday and give him some information.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I have to agree with Lee
A snake in my yard= dead snake in my yard.

espeacialy after what I was told by our conservation agent. He told me that for the past few years black snakes and copper heads have been cross-breeding and they have found some black snakes with fangs and venom.

Crazy Dan, your conservation agent doesn't know what he's talking about. Black snakes lay eggs, copperheads have live young. They cannot cross-breed. I've heard the rumor probably got started because young black snakes have gray patterning on their bodies before they turn all black and somebody saw that and thought it meant the snakes were interbreeding.

They're not. They cannot. That's one thing, at least, you don't need to worry about.

I was actually coming back to this thread to debunk my misinformation. (sorry did not check facts before repeating them).
I did some checking on my own and yes you are correct they cannot produce viable offspring.
also seams that the myth that they interbreed during floods is still very popular and with the floods this year seams it has resurfaced.
I plan on calling the mdc agent Monday and give him some information.

Good! Give him hell for spreading really ignorant misinformation. There's really no excuse for it anymore with the Internet at everyone's fingertips.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Also worth considering is that non-poisonous snakes are no danger to human beings, and all snakes prey on the stuff that drives us crazy. Our ecosystems are out of whack because we have too few predators, not too many.

 

[JustWood]

Also worth considering is that non-poisonous snakes are no danger to human beings, and all snakes prey on the stuff that drives us crazy. Our ecosystems are out of whack because we have too few predators, not too many.

They must have all migrated here. We are over run with them.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Thanks gyrfalcon, I was feeling all alone in my defense of snakes. That said, I don't care to come across rattle or copper head snakes, of which there are few to none in NJ...thank you.

Edit: I do understand the problem of too many: e.g., people and white tail deer in NJ

 

[gyrfalcon]

Also worth considering is that non-poisonous snakes are no danger to human beings, and all snakes prey on the stuff that drives us crazy. Our ecosystems are out of whack because we have too few predators, not too many.

They must have all migrated here. We are over run with them.

We mainly have lots of coyotes here, which keep us almost entirely free of groundhogs and racoons and take the occasional unwary cat, including one of mine a couple years ago. But some people here have regular shooting parties to go out and kill them because they're mad at the coyotes for killing too many of "their" deer. After losing my small furry friend, I have no love for them, but seems to me a few deer is a small price to pay for the first-rate varmint control.

 

[fossil]

Well, now here's a person who obviously doesn't share my particular mild aversion to snakes. I can't imagine picking it up and taking it home assuming it was somebody's pet:

(broken link removed to http://bend.craigslist.org/for/736379524.html)

Rick

 

[Andy99]

So as I enter into this world of burning wood; Are there any insects that might decide that my house is a better meal?

The first 4 cords fit in the basement....
And the first delivery is beech.


Ed

Ok so other then snakes.... I think you should be worried about carpenter ants, Termites and any wood eating insect.

 

[CountryGal]

It's been in the hundreds here but I thought I'd check in and see what was happening.

Speaking of snakes, this was in my golf cart's open glove box last week:

After Paul told me to "Get out!" as I was reaching for the GC key (which I did without question), I saw it was a gopher snake and went in the house and got my camera.

I leave the non poisonous snakes alone. Helps keep down the mice and that helps keep the rattlesnakes away.

 

[fossil]

CG, that first pic just looks to me like it's crying out for the caption, "Got Gophers?". :lol: Rick