Before any of you bring wood into your house, do you move it? I do, because I don't want the spiders and crickets that live in the piles piggybacking their way into the house.
Nah, wood roaches and spider webs around the hearth is part of wood burning season for us. I am hoping none of the skunks try to hang on.
My wood gets a good shake before it comes in the house. It gets tossed into the back of a dump truck. Then the body is raised and it’s tossed down the bulkhead on concrete steps. Most of the insects are left in the truck with bark scraps which are dumped wherever I’m wanting a little bark scrap at that time.
I keep a face cord on my deck during the heating season. It gets filled from my main wood storage area, using a garden/yard cart. Each split that gets moved, gets knocked together, mostly to remove any collected debris. Any critters are usually knocked off in the process. With the exception of a forecasted blizzard
We bring wood to the porch and then into the house but only as we need it. From the porch to the stove. So as we get the wood to go on the porch,it gets the junk knocked off and again before it comes into the house. Still the is always some stuff to clean up around the stove; that is just part of wood burning. But we don't have a big problem with bugs. Also it is the one bad thing about the drier the wood and the longer it is stored, the messier it gets. So one has to be aware of this to keep it at a minimum. Burn green wood and you won't have pieces of bark falling off but it certainly is not worth it. Make sure your wood is dry!
Similar here, wood is stored in a woodshed just out back and stacked on the front porch. From the pile it gets a good shake, into the log carrier, into the house and into the stove. We've got way to many termites around these parts to even think about storing wood inside. Once in awhile I'll lay a couple of extra splits on the hearth that couldn't fit into the stove for next reload.
I also move wood from the piles to the porch weekly & then move it into the house as needed so lots of jostling knocks off any remaining hangers on. The birds keep the bugs to a minimum on my outside stacks. I have several Woodpeckers, Orioles, Bluebirds, Swallows & various other species that scrounge the woodpiles for food. I do find several robin nests & the last 2 years have had several wrens nesting in them. I find a mouse nest occasionally. Raccoons crapping on the top row is frustrating. However the critter that spends the most time in/on/around the wood piles is the one pictured & she does try to slyly tag along into the house as the wood is carried in, usually while my back is turned & I am stacking the wood by the stove. I turn around and she is making herself @ comfortable on the couch. I did find this critter in the stove on 2 consecutive days around Memorial Day. I called him John, as Mama’s fathers name was John & he loved bluebirds. He had to work hard to get in, thru the chimney cap & around the baffle, unfortunately Mama was out of town visiting one of the girls so she only got to see pictures.
In the fall I move what I anticipate on burning for the season underneath my deck. Typically I only bring wood into the house itself that I plan on burning that same day. That way the wood has just enough time to come up to room temperature but isn’t sitting around indoors giving the bugs a chance to set up shop in my house.
I spray all around my stacks with Tempo insecticide. Kills everything. Spray in between rows before the tarp goes on too.
Kinda hard to bring it into the house without moving it. I find stashes of acorns in stacks, mostly lunch remnants . Just don't find too many bugs, mostly pillbugs and they usually don't make it into the house as they are runners and rarely stand their ground when disturbed. Most woods bugs find inside the house inhospitable and die.
I bring two weeks worth of wood into the basement every two weeks in alternating racks. If I notice any critters I give the wood a spray with some indoor "cide"... It warms the wood and gives it a 2 week kinda kiln dried since it's fairly close to the stove but not dangerously close (8' or so). Since I'm down there 3 or more times a day, I keep an eye out for critters and only had an issue once with some hickory borers in some Honey Locust that wasn't quite dry enough anyway... Other than that, I haven't had any real critter issues. Now that I'm caught up on the 3 year plan, I have no wood entering the house with anything over 20% and that eliminates a lot of bugs to start with. The woodshed next to the house doesn't get any "green" wood in it. Only "seasoned" wood makes it into the woodshed for the last 8 or 9 months before becoming BTU's for our home heating enjoyment. The rest is all stacked in sunny, windy spots all over the farm.
Early in the season I only bring what I'm going to throw into the stove but once we get 2-3 hard frosts I bring in 2 weeks at a time and hardly ever see any bugs or spiders.
I bring in the entire seasons worth. I see no real issue with bugs. I don’t think they like the indoor environment much and crawl back out the bulkhead if there are any.
I hate bugs in my house !! I smack the wood together as i load my cary in bags and when I'm done filling the inside rack I dump the bags into a dust pan and any mess bugs etc go in the stove.
I dont bring wood in until its time to burn. Most of the time frozen in the cold. Some bugs are inevitable.
