Ive only noticed a small amount of frass in my three top covered stacks of HL. They are in a shaded area and would be a mess if not covered. I envy you folks with wide open areas for wood stacks
I used to leave my stacks uncovered for a year. I then came into an amount of roofing rubber. So, if you can cover, then cover. IMO I guess leaving my racks uncovered, was more because of lack of covering.
I understand that. We have the powder post beetles, they will get in logs and certain species worse than others. I know hickory and pecan are magnets for them some types of oak, as well. In our round wood shed, those beetles and some borers made holes while the wood was green, but they're gone now. Burns great
I just went through a stack separating out what was salable and what we needed to burn ourselves. Throughout the top of the stack that was top covered with metal roofing was wood with powder post beetles infestation. They affected the black birch, red maple and hickory. They didn’t touch the red oak at all. I don’t remember how long the wood sat before it was stacked. But I suspect the time of year that one cuts and how long the wood sits wet may have an impact on whether or not it gets infested. I’m sure the wood we “culled” will burn just fine…
Boy, this is a weird one... HL is considered premium firewood in these parts for sure! Not as good as black, but headed there. My only issue with HL is all the frass from the boring bugs! Almost as bad as hickory! I had some HL a few years back that went bad on me because it wasn't top covered and the frass got soaked, wood rotted. I just got into a spot of HL in the stacks I'm burning here recently...always amazes me how heavy it is, even bone dry...burns hot, leaves some good coals under the ashes. Always have to knock the splits around to knock the dust off though! I won't trip over myself to get HL, but certainly not gonna turn my nose up at it! Kinda like cherry... I'm not nearly the fan boy of it that some are...I'm actually liking the hybrid poplar from our backyard trees just as well, probably better!
I burn a lot of honey locust. Burning it right now actually. It's great firewood, but it really doesn't burn well until it's been split and stacked at least 3 years. 4 years is the sweet spot. I've burned some 5 year dried HL this year and it's really good as well. It likes to coal up. Totally fine with that.
Bingo. Willow is the worst IMHO as well. It's heavy when green, splits horribly, takes forever to dry, and when it is dry it has very low BTU's. I'll take any conifer over Willow, any day.
Honey locust here wheels sweet too, like honey. The only better smelling wood around here is apple or white oak.
I get a little frass from my HL in my shed. Minimal and it affects nothing, provided you don't let that get in your eyes when taking splits from the shed and hauling them to the house to burn that season.
Other than my (No)wood in January 2003, my next worst firewood was any time I went camping at a State Park the wood was always wet, green, and way too big.
We had that experience once back in the 1980's. It was slab wood Eastern white pine. Musta been fresh cut and wouldn't burn worth a chit. Always scrounged my own ever since. I spend a good part of a camping trip scrounging dry wood. Who woulda guessed???
