The most important things you need to know when preparing firewood without carpenter ants for aging are how to store firewood to avoid termites and why do you need to extract firewood at all.
The purchase of wood in a store or from a supplier does not guarantee that it is prepared or ready for burning.
Well-dried logs burn easier and last longer. They accumulate less creosote, and they help your wood-burning stoves work with maximum efficiency and minimal emissions. In this note you will find answers to various frequently asked questions that people usually have about aging and laying termites in firewood.
Including whether it is necessary to cover firewood without carpenter ants and what options exist to do this job correctly.
How to Avoid Termites
To avoid the appearance of termites in the firewood, use the following three simple rules.
Storing Firewood stack
Store firewood outside
The best place for termites in firewood is away from buildings, for example, from the side of the home or garage.
Make sure that the firewood is at least 5 feet away from the exterior walls of the home, so that termites (or other pests) do not move from the pile of logs into your house. And if your stack will still be against the wall of the house, it’s worth protecting the area with a steel plate or other similar material.
Think about it. On a cool winter morning, you will want the damp wood pile ready for burning to be in the most convenient place so that you can quickly take a few logs and light a flame. No one likes a cold hearth! Therefore, we recommend storing firewood at a distance of 5-30 feet from the home.
Covering Firewood
Rolls of roofing material, rubemast or stekloizol are suitable as covering materials.
Use a suitable material to cover your woodpile
If possible, it is better to abandon the roofing material, use rubemastam or glass insulation, materials that have a polyethylene film on one side, which will protect the damp wood from petroleum products contained in all the listed waterproofing materials after rain.
Another suitable material is reinforced polyethylene film. Thermal films are categorically not suitable for winter protection — they are not too durable and permeable to moisture in oldest wood. A strip half the width of the total width of the roll is enough to cover.
You can divide the roll in two ways: cut it in a rolled-up form with an axe or unfold it on the ground and cut it with a bayonet shovel. The uneven edge does not matter. The standard length of the roll is 10 meters, it is not difficult to calculate the need for material of metal base for the shelter of the log home along the perimeter and the existing floor logs.
Splitting Firewood
Laying freshly cut logs in one row allows each piece of wood dry without avoid termites to dry out, which is very important in the process of holding firewood without termites. You can create cross rows using irregular shaped logs. The organization of the woodshed by the method of cross-stacking promotes the circulation of fresh air with every breath of wind.
You will want to organize your pile of firewood without avoid termites to maximize the air flow for drying and keep the stack of logs nice and clean.
Helpful Tip
When stacking firewood without insects, keep the split logs with the cut side to the wind to speed up the drying process and increase the efficiency of aging.
When stacking firewood without insects, keep the split logs with the cut side to the wind to speed up the drying process and increase the efficiency of exposure. Try to leave more room for air between the logs. Pieces of non-standard shape help or are stacked crosswise.
The Best Way to Store Firewood
The main task of proper storage of new firewood is to eliminate the contact of wood with moisture. Dry firewood does not mold and does not rot, so it is stored indefinitely.
Chopped firewood
Before you put the chopped wood dry in the wood pile, they need to be dried. To do this, leave the firewood where they were unloaded for about a month. When the firewood without pests is piled up, the air circulates freely between them, and the moisture evaporates very quickly.
In a month, it will become clear whether there are rotten logs among the firewood or those affected by bark beetle. If the “sick” wood is stored with the rest, the whole stock will suffer.
To prevent this from happening, rotten logs horntail wasps must be thrown away, and the bark beetle must be exterminated with an insecticide checker. To do this, cover the pile with a film, set outdoor fire pit to the checker and put it on the firewood to avoid termites.
Uncut firewood
Uncut firewood logs also needs to be prepared for storage. If you bought logs, they need to be sawn into chunks, the length of which should be 20% shorter than the fuel compartment of the fireplace or stove. By the way, if you’re planning on getting your fireplace cleaned, check it out here Your Fireplace Shines Again : How to Clean Soot off Brick.
The resulting logs need to be dried for a month in an open space or under an awning, and then split with an axe, a cleaver or an electric wood cutter. More on tools and equipment in this section. If you chop in winter, let the firewood freeze well — it’s easier to work with them this way.
The easiest way to stack firewood piles is parallel to each other. But such a wood piles is unstable. So that it does not fall apart, it is made near the wall of the house without pests, garage, bathhouse or along the fence. If the height of the masonry is more than 0.5 m, then support bars are placed in each of its ends, the length of which should be equal to the height of the wood with penetrate deeply.
The firewood piles is stacked in a row on top of each other with a slight (3-5 °) slope towards the support wall. To create it, you can put slats under the outer edge of the log racks.
Other Termite-Busting Tactics
If you decide to destroy termites in firewood on your own, then remember that the fight must be complex – using several different means and methods of termite colony.
- The treatment brings the best results in the spring, when the larvae are at the outer layers of wood boring beetles, and adults tend to leave the wood elements.
- In parallel with the use of attract termites live remedies, it is desirable to carry out anti-putrefaction measures.
- Sprayed insecticides of release toxic fumes should be given as much time as possible to work – ideally a week. During this wood period, the house should be left and closed. See details in these instructions Termites in Attic – Ultimate Guide for You 2021-2023.
- If you are processing with the help of chemicals or pesticides poisons, then boric acid can also be used with them – the simply throw finished paste should be carefully smeared over all the holes in the infection zone from subterranean termites.
- Since the main food source of subterranean termites is wood for store, it is advisable to keep infested logs, treat firewood and other stocks of trees wood away from home. It is also recommended to dry them, making them unattractive to insects, and cover them.
- Use repellents at the stage of construction of wood structures. Add a tablespoon of 0.1% permethrin to a bucket of water and pour the resulting solution into the paint or varnish, with which you will later cover the interior and exterior wood walls. A simply throw portion of permethrin can also be added to the glue used when laying the floor covering, or find evidence to cement.
It’s easier to prevent than to fight
Prevention of the infested logs termites in firewood will also be a regular inspection of the houme and all its parts. If cracks are found, they should be immediately repaired – especially often they appear near water pipes and form around electrical wiring.
And on the windows, entrance, and wood balcony doors, it is worth installing mosquito nets – to prevent termites will not be able to enter your house from the street. And do not forget to make sure that the ventilation passages are always free. To do this, bushes and trees without pests should not be planted near them and weeds should be mowed in time. Let your home always be clean of insects, most, and pests!
Chapter FAQs: How to Store Firewood to Avoid Termites
How do I keep termites out of my woodpile?
You or trained professional can get rid of termites in firewood in a wooden house both with the help of sunlight and by freezing. However, termites in firewood are possible to apply one of these methods only in cases where parasites have been found in certain places of the wood infestation without termite infestation.
Option one is to take the affected furniture outside and leave it for a couple of days. At the same time, make sure that the sun’s rays fall on it as long as possible.
Option two: it is suitable for rainy regions where the sun rarely pleases with its light.
How do you protect wood from termites?
You can use various means of protection against prevent termites, as a rule, these are some chemicals or pesticides. You can buy them online or in specialized stores.
What is the proper way to store firewood?
To keep firewood for a long time and not spoil, follow a few simple rules:
- provide good ventilation for smaller pieces of firewood
- protected firewood from precipitation and direct sunlight
- choose a suitable place for a woodpile: close to the entrance to the house, on the south, south-west or south-east side, do not
- properly stack smaller pieces of firewood for store in the pit
- observe fire safety rules and do not place a woodpile near open sources of burn
If you still have questions, watch this video:
Conclusion
Answering the question, of how to store firewood to avoid termites, we would like to note the following. When preparing for harvesting firewood at least six months, be sure to take care of obtaining a permit and study all the recommendations for sawing and further storage.
The raw materials must be of perfect quality to ensure comfortable conditions of the indoor climate in the house throughout the winter period or using pest control company.
