I started splitting some Black Locus rounds today. I found a nest of black ants and it appears to be throughout a good bit of the rounds. Do I need to be concerned or will they die through the seasoning? The tree was cut live in Nov. and processed into rounds in Dec. so it did not have long ground contact. The damage appears to be in many rounds. I had a house that carpenter ants decided to take up residence in years ago. It cost me a small fortune for the exterminator to get rid of them. The exterminator said, "They probably came from my firewood or the landscaping timbers." I have had a phobia against ants ever since. I thought Black Locus didn't get bugs or rot. That was the reason farmers use it for fence posts.
I dont worry about it. Black ants live in wet wood. once it drys the ants go away. I will split most of the infested parts of wood out and pitch it.
Split it. Knock the buggers out. Stack it. I spread anti-ant granules around and within my stacks. I only see ants in newly downed trees.
Bugs love moisture. Split it and dry it. Diatomaceous earth sprinkled on your stacks in the meantime kills insects but doesn’t harm pets and humans.
I have a dead standing 8-10" black locust that is used as an electricity pole to get power to an outhouse. It was half dead and full of ants some 35 years ago when I was a kid. It is still there.
The blue stain in the heart wood as well as the rot is a sign of oversaturation. If this piece of wood came from the lower section of the tree the roots were most likely sitting in too much water. If in the middle or upper section there was most likely a wound or crotch that held water and over time deteriorated the wood. As Timberdog stated, bugs love moisture. I've used Green Light Ant Killer in the past to kill them and keep them out of my home. It's always done the trick for me.
We see a lot of black ants in maples here. The ants get in weak wet wood. I always just split it, knock the ants on the ground and step on them. Once the wood is split and starts to dry they won’t be back. I had ants in an outside wall once under a window. The exterminator came and told me that I must have a water leak, and he was right. I tore into the wall and fixed the leak. Ants were gone then.
Dam bugs are always in mine, and as Timberdog said sprinkle Diatomaceous earth on the wood. It works in the short term but once it rains a few times it's gone. I use Naptha, moth flakes. I still was bitten by a Black widow this year and it didn't stop them. My friend told me to spread bird seed on my wood piles... It seems the birds will go after the bugs much more and they'll get used to picking in the wood pile for something to eat. I haven't found it to change much, just more poop on my piles!
I didn't know about the blue stain in wood was a sign of being oversaturation. Thank you an you are most likely correct. The tree had the top bent over about 15' above the ground. The damage went almost to the stump.
The bird seed idea was really intriguing me until the last line. Do I really want to deal with bird poop on my stacks? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
X2, every hollow tree around here has carpenter ants in it. I’m used to them. Throw the ate up parts on the brush pile and carry on!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
They stay warm (enough) in the Winter in their little hollowed out caves by huddling together en masse. If you split the wood open in cold weather they generally freeze to death and often get eaten as they aren't capable of moving very fast in the cold. Some may find a place to huddle together but without a queen they won't accomplish much. I've used the splitter to split off infested sections and then thrown them into the burn pile with a shovel. They need damp wood in a house - like exposed untreated deck beams or leaking roof rafters, bathroom leak, wet wood, etc. I don't think they are picky about wood type beyond soft decomposing wood, often previously galleried by beetle grubs.
I had some wood here one time that was full of black ants when I split it. I just made sure it was stacked away from the house and once the wood was split and stacked the ants did not survive.
