Do you guys have any concern if you find termites in any of the wood in your processing/storage area? Have handled quite a bit of rounds that should have been dealt with long ago and has some punky wood, but still plenty good wood, and have come across a lot of termites. I admit I don't know enough about termites. Like, does every group need a queen to propagate or do some of them turn into queens or what, lol.
in all my years of making firewood ive run into them 4 maybe 5 times. Twice this year. See my threads Termite be insects in this dead ash...yup i was right! The TERMITEinator! I used my little propane torch to get rid of them. Never seen any in my PA. Keeping wood dry and off the ground helps IMO. Plenty of carpenter ants though.
We see them from time to time. Usually I will toss that wood to the side for a few days. They dry out fast. I also keep a sprayer with carpenter ant/termite spray in it, give it a quick spray to kill them. Let it dry then stack it, keep it dry.
I ran into some of them little booger’s for the first time this year. A little younger and less than in Brads photo. My processing area is about 150 yards from the house so I wasnt too worried about it. Most little moist things that live under bark don’t last too long once exposed. Termites are the worst though. Destructive little bastards.
The problem I am finding in this locale is if the wood has been on the ground, there's a high probability it has termites, they are extremely common around here. I even had them in my house one time, the floor. Had to replace it. The floor got soft in a couple spots, thought it was water, nope, termites. It could be that the problem will be taken care of in those splits by nature, as I have a bazillion ants, mostly fire ants, and they are all over the woodpile. I saw them 'harvesting' termites in splits I threw aside. It's crazy how many ants I have here.
I agree. Having read some on termites they chew mostly through wet-rot wood or middle rot. Usually your house isn’t under much danger unless you get some kind of leak for awhile, it’s uncommon but it does happen.
I'm "LOADED" with them here! As long as your wood is off the ground, they generally won't go for it. They can tunnel to it though. I have my wood up on plastic pallets but years back they would eat the wood pallets right out from under the wood. Moth flakes will keep them at bay for a short spell, dump it under the wood pile if your can. Don't use any chemicals on the wood obviously.
ever consider chickens Yawner ? Ive been told they are great for any type of insects. Actually posted another thread about it. been bugging me all afternoon
I cut a mystery tree back in Feb. and thought it was sassafras. I cut it up but left the rounds lying on the ground and moved on to several oaks that I wanted to take out. I cut them down and then got a building job out in Cal. on a home on the historical register that had been in a fire. I had worked on this home in previous years--the job was coming down to the wire and the owners needed a lot of specialized finish carpentry and joinery done. I stayed out in Cal. for 3 months. When I got back I cut into rounds, and split the oaks I had felled, but left the "sassafras" rounds sitting on the ground. Summer came and I was down in my woods where the "sassafras" was piled up and on impulse I split one of the rounds and smelled it. WHITE OAK!! When I started to pick up the larger rounds I noticed tiny, white termites in and on the big rounds, so I left them there. I only brought back the rounds of all the larger limbs--all were between 2" to 8" in diameter. So I brought these smaller rounds back up to my wood shed and stacked them up in a separate pile. About a month later I was out there and I noticed many small piles of very fine sawdust all over that pile. OH &%$# termites!!! What to do? What I did was bring my convection oven out to the wood shed, plug it in, and every single one of those rounds went into the oven at 280 degrees for 3 hours. I re-stacked all those small rounds and never saw another pile of sawdust. They really burn well too--they've been kiln dried!
I have a little handheld propane torch that works great for roasting any visible ones. Use it on ants too. Keep it in the truck and am mindful when in dry conditions.
I actually have a flock of 45 at my gf's house but I do wood at my house. Whenever we find termites in wood at her house, I take the split to the chicken yard and let them have a delicacy. In fact, did it just two days ago. A mama hen and her baby chick, she let the chick have most of them, cool!
What was making the piles of fins sawdust is powder post beetles. They will bore in for a bit, but leave when wood gets dry, I've seen them go to wood that's only been down a month or so. They love hickory...the light colored dust on the floor and ground is from hickory splits.
Yep, we have fire ants and termites here as well. Some termites are small and others quite large. I will still spray pyrethrin around the stacks and on the bugs.
