Getting ready for my 1st year

[Jan Pijpelink]

Termites? Ants? they life in wet wood, once the wood is dry they leave, termites usually live in the soil, no worries, maybe some spiders in that pile.

One or two moist pieces of wood is enough to get those buggers into the house.

 

[sportbikerider78]

One or two moist pieces of wood is enough to get those buggers into the house.

One of the many reasons I use a pesticide around the base of the house 2-3 times per year. Even if it gets them to just turn around...mission accomplished.

 

[Jags]

In the 12 years I have been on this site, I have never seen nor heard of a stick built wood shed getting chewed up by termites. Maybe it goes unreported? Dunno, but my own personal wood shed built in 1915 and gets a minimum of 5 cords stuffed into it each year shows no signs either. I really wonder just how much of a threat firewood is for termite infestation? (That is a question, not a statement). This being the largest wood burning forum on the web, I would suspect to have heard more about it, if it was in fact an issue.

And to the OP - nice setup. That should make it easy to go from cold storage (bugs ain’t moving) to in the stove (bugs get fried).

 

[Dug8498]

One of the many reasons I use a pesticide around the base of the house 2-3 times per year. Even if it gets them to just turn around...mission accomplished.

Which pesticide do you use? I was thinking about doing this as well as a preventative step. Thanks in advance

 

[Ashful]

Which pesticide do you use? I was thinking about doing this as well as a preventative step. Thanks in advance

His pesticide doesn’t kill them, it just fills them with self-doubt, as to whether they’re in the right house.

(I stole that line... sort of.)

 

[Chas0218]

I had carpenter ants once in some old dead standing cherry and didn't know it until I split it. Holy cow I couldn't believe the number of ants in the log. It was messy with all the dead ants after I sprayed them with the bee killer. The few that lived ended up being used as extra BTU's. I did have a little colony starting in one of my other logs but that was last year and haven't seen any signs in my house, garage or in my new stack of seasoned wood. Either way I don't see it as a problem in the winter when they are most likely in the wood and burned well before they can get out.

 

[Pertzbro]

Well he has like 9 woodstoves and fireplaces.

I've always wanted to see pics of Ashful's setups and a layout diagram of his place. I cant imagine 3+ wood stoves plus open fireplaces in a home.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

I've always wanted to see pics of Ashful's setups and a layout diagram of his place. I cant imagine 3+ wood stoves plus open fireplaces in a home.

Me too. Looks like a full time job for 3 people.

 

[Ashful]

Hah... guys, you’re making it out to be much more than it is. When I speak of having open fireplaces, it’s either the one on my patio, or my past houses (my childhood home had four open fireplaces). This house has just the two big cooking fireplaces, each currently outfitted with an Ashford 30, and a bunch (I think 7) unused thimbles from the small army of wood stoves they used to heat this joint and cook their dinner 200 years ago.

The foundation of the fireplace in my office looks like another cooking fireplace, and I think it may have been the main kitchen cooker in the original 1738 rendition of this house, but was since re-purposed as a foundation for this fireplace. You’ve probably seen photos of an old white enamel Jotul stuffed in there, which was really just my spare parts stove, necessary if you’re going to run a pair of stoves as old as the Jotul 12.

Working on a tablet while supervising swim lessons, but will try to grab some photos from home tonight. BKVP can tell you, this place ain’t that big, but it is interesting.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Hah... guys, you’re making it out to be much more than it is. When I speak of having open fireplaces, it’s either the one on my patio, or my past houses (my childhood home had four open fireplaces). This house has just the two big cooking fireplaces, each currently outfitted with an Ashford 30, and a bunch (I think 7) unused thimbles from the small army of wood stoves they used to heat this joint and cook their dinner 200 years ago.

The foundation of the fireplace in my office looks like another cooking fireplace, and I think it may have been the main kitchen cooker in the original 1738 rendition of this house, but was since re-purposed as a foundation for this fireplace. You’ve probably seen photos of an old white enamel Jotul stuffed in there, which was really just my spare parts stove, necessary if you’re going to run a pair of stoves as old as the Jotul 12.

Working on a tablet while supervising swim lessons, but will try to grab some photos from home tonight. BKVP can tell you, this place ain’t that big, but it is interesting.

Keep bragging!

 

[Jay106n]

Set up is nice! It should suit you well. A little home defender bug spray never hurts.

Full disclosure, it was poplar... but I was ripping thru some serious wood (10 cords per year, average) for a couple years, there. Changing out my two stoves, and some of my burning goals, fixed that problem. The last few years have been too bizarre to remotely call average, but I'm predicting I'll average 6 cords per year, now.

I had a ton of poplar last year that I ripped through at an astonishing rate. And it smelled bad.

my thoughts exactly!

I just use a single piece of newspaper in the flue, and it works fine!

I do the same. Works great. I don’t get paper delivery or anything like that, so I now scrounge for newspaper all summer as well. I can usually grab a few from the office before they get tossed in the trash.

 

[Highbeam]

Which pesticide do you use? I was thinking about doing this as well as a preventative step. Thanks in advance

Termidor is what you want. There is a generic version as well. Available online shipped to most states. This is serious stuff and what the professionals use. Follow the directions. We have more problems with carpenter ants and termidor is awesome for them too, per the directions you apply it a little differently than when targeting termites but it is very effective.

In the 12 years I have been on this site, I have never seen nor heard of a stick built wood shed getting chewed up by termites.

Good point. I've been stacking on wood pallets, then foam pallets, and now in a wooden shed on foam pallets. Never have anything but bees and spiders in the wood. The wood pallets rot away without termites. Sometimes under the pallets I'll have beetles. The risk is higher with a home though.

 

[Ashful]

I had a ton of poplar last year that I ripped through at an astonishing rate. And it smelled bad.

I should have noted, not that it matters, just the one cord I did in 8 days was poplar. The other 9+ cords that year was mixed hardwoods.

 

[barnaclebob]

Wow... no worries with damaging something with an unattended propane torch burning for several minutes? I've used a hair dryer or heat gun (eg. Wagner paint stripper) for this purpose, and that always worked just fine for me, a propane torch has substantially more horsepower.

Something like this is what I use and would be hard to damage anything with, probably less than a couple thousand BTU's:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008ZA09/?tag=hearthamazon-20

It only takes 5 or 10 seconds to get a draft going with it though so no need to leave it unattended and you'd have to tape the trigger down anyway. No cords to mess with either.