So, a relative has been bringing me wood they want to get rid of. A bunch of pine, and the remnants of one old dead cherry tree. Tonight they casually mention that their neighbor's house, adjacent to where they had their wood piled on the dirt, has been diagnosed with termites. "Do you still want the rest of the wood?"
So, I remember back to the wood piles he brought here in May and June, which I initially stacked a few weeks next to my 200 year old barn, but more recently moved down to my main wood stacking area. It was being eaten by something that was producing brown dirt and dust. Full of small holes. I checked the piles at his house, and see the same.
A whole list of questions start running thru my mind, most of which may have come up here before. Will this infestation move to the rest of my stacks? Currently that wood is under a mountain of big walnut rounds, waiting to be split this winter. Will the termites get into my soil, and plague me for life? Will they attack my house when I stack wood under the porch for winter? Sure, it's cold for part of the season, but I usually move the stack up to the house before it gets real cold, and may have firewood under that porch still in April.
Then again... this is probably not the only termite-infested wood I'll ever bring home. I'm a scrounger. Maybe I should just be treating the soil around my piles (and the piles themselves?) for termites, on the assumption they're always there?
So, I remember back to the wood piles he brought here in May and June, which I initially stacked a few weeks next to my 200 year old barn, but more recently moved down to my main wood stacking area. It was being eaten by something that was producing brown dirt and dust. Full of small holes. I checked the piles at his house, and see the same.
A whole list of questions start running thru my mind, most of which may have come up here before. Will this infestation move to the rest of my stacks? Currently that wood is under a mountain of big walnut rounds, waiting to be split this winter. Will the termites get into my soil, and plague me for life? Will they attack my house when I stack wood under the porch for winter? Sure, it's cold for part of the season, but I usually move the stack up to the house before it gets real cold, and may have firewood under that porch still in April.
Then again... this is probably not the only termite-infested wood I'll ever bring home. I'm a scrounger. Maybe I should just be treating the soil around my piles (and the piles themselves?) for termites, on the assumption they're always there?