Anyone ever have some issues with wood roaches or wood boring beetles? Beetles don't bother so much as those little nasty roaches. I think I brought most of this on myself, about 6 months ago when I started getting into wood hoarding I collected everything. I first went after the standing dead stuff which had these little critters in them already, I was green didn't know any better. Am definitely more picky with my wood now after learning a little. After relocating part of my wood pile this past week I came across them in the stacks running all around and a few wood boring beetles which have done a number to many tree's behind my house. I carefully smacked and tried clear any bugs off each piece before re-stacking. I always keep my stuff outside and smack everything a few times before bringing it in the house.
normal- not much you can do unless you want to de-bark it all. that won't get rid of all of them buts elimanates 80% of habitat.
Thanks Chris, glad am not alone.....! Never heard of them wood roaches before, I saw one way back when I 1st moved here and was like what the frig is a roach doing under the wood bark? Then I looked it up!
Bugs go with the territory. I've cut live ash trees and found wood roaches. Generally the roaches run when you pick up a split. For roaches, just bang the splits before you bring them in. I don't believe wood roaches will infest your home unless its wet. Powder post beetles could be a problem if they get into your house. For wood that may have those; go from the stacks into the stove. My stacks are 200 yards from my house and I don't bring wood to the concrete covered porch untill most nasty critters are resting for the winter. My 'porch wood' is stacked, nearly a cord at a time, on a rack about 4" off the porch floor so it stays dry. And that wood goes from the porch to the stove, it never sits in the house longer than the time it takes me to load the store. Must bugs, like carpenter ants, won't stay in dry wood. Some folks spray or put down power or granular pest control, l did it once on the porch but it was just too messy. And I've never had a bug in my home, except Asian lady bugs, and that's a whole other story. Bugs, they're part of the game.
Yes, most will have them if you put up wood. It's just part of the game. Some say keep the wood dry and they won't be there. Well, it may work for some but not all. For as long as we've burned wood we've always seen the bugs. As chris stated, debarking can help but won't be a cure-all. As for powder-post beetles, once you see they have attacked the wood, they are usually gone. We've never seen any damage done to the home, porch or anything else. However, in times past we used to get them in the graineries and they could be a problem in there. We used to occasionally have to replace handles in tools like shovel, post hole digger, scythe, etc. You have the right idea of smacking the wood logs together before bringing into the house. I do that with most even if not suspect with bugs as it knocks off some of the loose crap that always collects on wood. btw, Ive never seen bugs on the unsplit wood that has been stacked; just wood that has been split.
