A few minutes ago I watched one spider escape the wheelbarrow and run across the basement floor. I tried to torch it, but it was too fast. Watched another one scurry into a crack in the wood to escape the flames. Lots of bugs still out in the South. This coming week should knock ‘em down a bit.
Seeing as how you are in Louisiana, it's not like you have to bring in months and months supply worth of firewood, right? Brad has the right idea (IMO). Have a stack close to the house and just bring in what you need if the bugs are infesting the pile. Heck, I think Backwoods Savage leaves his firewood on his porch right up until he burns it instead of having a stack in his house; look how far north he lives!
Very rarely a bug as my stacks are home to lots of milk snakes they keep the bugs and mice in check. But we do get spiders after the first frost as the snakes go underground. I stack a weeks worth out on the back porch and bring it in as needed to feed the stove. Occasionally one will escape from a split as it sites in the bin by the stove but they don’t last long .
I have the outdoor woodshed, with the gravel floor. In the spring I put down a hardcore poison where I am certain the dogs can’t get to it. It’s a powder meant for ants and so on, name is escaping me. Aside from that any bulk wood goes into the unheated garage, but only when the temps are below freezing. I have the random spider or Yellowjacket, but otherwise no issues. I do stockpile kindling in poly totes.
I have 1/3 a cord on my deck. It's 3 steps from the door where the stove is. It's not a big deal to get wood, as needed. The only time we bring wood inside, is when there's a blizzard forecasted. Only a days worth. Critters that are on board, stay outside.
Many years ago we would bring in a wheelbarrow or two of wood when my father burned the basement fireplace. He would check it every half hour or so, PITA at the time. Anyhow, he goes to check the fire and a swarm of ants all over the place. One log had a colony of them inside!
I don't know what it is with my wood hoard, even the stacks I have at another location are infested with wolf spiders. I'm guessing the ant infested wood I usually end up with is the attraction? I made the mistake last year of bringing wood home to stack in my breezeway too early last year. Found way more of those I'd like to have. This year I moved the log splitter from the back side of my house this fall and I found 2 50 cent size wolf spiders hanging out under it, and the block foundation was crawling with those little punks. Wolf spiders are a declared enemy of the state in my realm, they are kill on sight.
