Why One Should Stack Wood Away from House or Other Structure

[NHWS]

Interesting. I don't use anything Google for various reasons. I had tried searching for "permethrin on firewood" in a different search engine. There were a number of results, but the only one that seemed relevant was the Florida Wildlife Department. They had enough bad info that I didn't trust them (e.g., something like "To reduce pests brought in on firewood, make sure to collect your firewood shortly before burning it, and don't keep leftover firewood from one year to the next.") The colonialpest site was in the results, but a different page that didn't address the question.

 

[Wood1Dennis]

Ah-Ha, that is good to know.
I will keep this bit of info in mind if I ever disconnect my woodburner from the chimney and vent it indoors. 🙄

 

[EatenByLimestone]

How many posts a day do we get about smoke not leaving the stove in ways other than the chimney?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

And besides, if you apply against the label, you are breaking the law. I’m more likely than you are to attract attention than you are for it, but it is what it is.

 

[Caw]

I store a weeks worth of wood in the basement at a time and the rest about 50-100 feet away. I find all sorts of interesting things in the back wood piles. Snake skin, mice nests, piles of live mice, bugs, you name it. I just smack some splits together, load the trailer, and bring it in. I haven't had any issues with bugs. Sometimes when I'm removing bark before bringing it in I'll find some mostly dead carpenter ants that I'll just shake off out back. There's no stopping mice getting in around here so we manage them the best we can. All my wood is 3 years old when burned and dry as a bone. Love that hard crack when banging the stuff off them.

No way I'd ever spray my firewood with chemicals. That's just me. I've got little kids and animals in here and smoke rolls out on reloads sometimes, it's unavailable nobody is perfect. I don't want to risk breathing that stuff.

One week's worth of oak:

 

[peakbagger]

When I first built the house I had Bilco bulkhead door and the mice had no issues getting in. It was cold and a PITA so I removed it and replaced with a "dog house" with a full size door and then put a solid core exterior door on the inside of the basement. I remove the interior stairs and load it with wheelbarrow from my stacks. no issues with bugs or insects. Some years I pile it real neat but most years like this one I just dump it in. I f I stack it neat I can get 1/2 a cord or more in. The mice still on occasion find their way into the dog house and I have a couple of traps but they rarely if ever make it past the inner door as long as I keep it closed. I have a piece of structural steel hidden in the roof of the dog house and a couple of hooks sticking out the ceiling attached to it. I use two chainfalls to transfer loads from the door down to the floor. My power shop tools, and wood boiler came in that way, and more recently a used Roth Oil tank and system 2000 oil boiler. I would never go back to a Bilco, they leak heat and freeze up in the winter.

 

[cahaak]

When I stack my firewood in my shed, under roof, I sprinkle it with borax. I use the five lb box you can get at Walmart for cheap. It sits there stacked for three years until I use it in my rotation. I never see insects, but part of that is also due to the fact that I pile dry it for one year before it gets shed stacked. Dry wood isn't particularly attractive to most insects.

Borax burns fine and oxidizes in the wood stove, no issues. A five lb box treats about three cords.

 

[ctreitzell]

Wherever my green wood piles are, I put 2 ant traps on each pile while the wood seasons…that only deals with ants though

Last month an old, treated post section ended up in the stove… we didn’t realize until toxic nastiness took over the living room…I evacuated every human and pet; closed all the doors…put on a FFP2 mask (wish I had a respirator, but I don’t) extracted the burning log into a galvanised tub and extinguished it outside with a garden hose

This toxic piece was delivered to me by my wood supplier…He will get it back if we use him again…very uncool…I’m being much more vigilant inspecting what he’s delivering me before any piece goes on the inside fire

 

[Garbanzo62]

I would think that once you split open the nest the ants will move on to an undisturbed area. I ran into this once so far, just moved those splits off to the side and let them sit for a bit, came back and no ants. My wood is kept about 130 ft away from the house. I fill up two old patio boxes at the base of my deck with wood that I carry into the house in a rubbermade tote. I also have wetlands on my property so there are a lot of downed trees that are more attractive locations than my wood piles.

 

[Wildflush]

I would think that once you split open the nest the ants will move on to an undisturbed area. I ran into this once so far, just moved those splits off to the side and let them sit for a bit, came back and no ants. My wood is kept about 130 ft away from the house. I fill up two old patio boxes at the base of my deck with wood that I carry into the house in a rubbermade tote. I also have wetlands on my property so there are a lot of downed trees that are more attractive locations than my wood piles.

So far no bugs in my 1/3 cord stack under my deck. About 10’ from the house. My emergency wood. Also have wetlands and I know ants like moisture. Maybe my deck wood is too dry for them.

 

[Caw]

Ants do not like dry wood, this is true. Good news for all of us with kick ass firewood!

 

[Max W]

While re-purposing much of my woodshed and moving wood within the shed and to other locations I found another insect infestation. This is one is only in the white ash. I have about a cord of it. The pest showed up as very small holes in the the center of little mounds of wood dust. The bark has not loosened and fallen off like with the first bug, a bark beetle, which fed under the bark of my beech, yellow birch and even some maple. I didn’t think it was sign of the dread Emerald Ash borer but it was just in the ash so I had some worry. Most of the hardwood in my immediate area is ash. Before filling the rack on my enclosed porch I checked with the U Maine extension office.

The new one is an Eastern Ash Bark Beetle. I learned that it only infects dead ash and it is safe to keep wood inside as with the first more generic bark beetle if I don’t mind a beetle emerging now and then and showing up at a window.

The Ash beetle was limited to one smaller section of the stacked ash. I see that the holes are through the bark in wood stacked with the bark side up. I don’t know but when I moved it I stacked the wood pretty much bark side down hoping that would discourage the spread.

The pics show the effects of both beetles and the different patterns they leave. Unlike with the very loose yellow birch bark I had to chop the ash bark off to see underlying the difference

 

[ctreitzell]

The new one is an Eastern Ash Bark Beetle. I learned that it only infects dead ash and it is safe to keep wood inside as with the first more generic bark beetle if I don’t mind a beetle emerging now and then and showing up at a window.

The pics show the effects of both beetles and the different patterns they leave. Unlike with the very loose yellow birch bark I had to chop the ash bark off to see underlying the difference

Which is which?

the bark beetle I have here looks more like the less destroyed small bores than the high damage termite effect on the left.

That said, I'm in France...soo...

 

[Max W]

The pic on the right and the one of the bark with the many tiny holes were identified as sign of the Eastern Ash bark beetle.

 

[singed]

I, the ignorant-homeowner star of other posts, designed a couple of wood sheds which my boys executed in the appointed spots about 4 feet from the house, which features a stacked-cinder-block basement.

The basement wall was in none-too-good a shape when we moved in, but it simply never occurred to me that the WEIGHT of 3-4 cords of firewood MIGHT have an impact on the stability of the wall. The summer after I first imagined that the earlier-seen cracks in the walls might be widening, I bit the bullet and arranged to drag the sheds back away from the house--by an amount calculated from the "angle of repose" of sand (our land), estimated from the BOTTOM of the basement wall.

That then meant clearing snow between the sheds and the house, but I managed to extend the roofline and cover it with transparent corrugated panels so "there's light in there" when I'm re-loading them in spring.