Ants

[JPhilip]

I have about a cord and half of ash that a tree guy dumped in my driveway that I am splitting manually ( love it- I pretend each piece is a lawyer).

I found that one of the pieces has what appears to be carpenter ants. They have made tunnels in the outer wood beneath the bark. The weather just got warm so the colony is probably coming out of winter dormancy.

What's the conventional wisdom here? Obviously this is not wood I can store in my garage, but if I keep it elevated and 20-30-feet from the house and get rid of the pieces where I found most of the infestation, is that considered prudent or am I in possession of wood I can't keep around?

Thanks for your input, even if it is "it is bad! I'll come take it away for you!"

 

[gink595]

I get that with a lot of elm that is punky around the bottom. If I find a colony that is full of ants I just pitch back in the woods. I don't want them around making more condo's. I guess I'd proably sort out what you think is good and bad. Make sure they are carpenter ants and not the Ash bore, which I just found out about recently, If they are the Ash Bore talk to the DNR or like I ended up at the USDA office, they could instruct you better on what to do with it.

 

[beerman6]

Take a propane torch to em,kill the ants,save the wood.

 

[user 19670]

Luckily we are still heating with wood these days although it is starting to get to spring thaw.
My wife takes such pieces from me, declares "Its sauna time!" and pitches it ants and all into the woodstove. She has a devilish side LOL.

 

[woodchop]

I use the granular ant killer and go around my firewood. I seldom have ants in my firewood.

 

[skid row]

Boric acid powder that I buy at the hardware store works great. Sprinkle it around the wood pile and any problem areas to get rid of the carpenter ants. Those ants really took a liking to a large tulip tree in my yard. But since I started treating the ground around the tree base they have gone.

 

[Brushwacker]

I usually split it and leave it in the woods a year and the ants either die , get ate by birds or leave by the time I pick it up. If I split it at home and see ants , I split it and leave it in the open away from the house and other wood where the birds and my chickens can work on them then wheel barrow small amounts close to the house and work on feeding it directly to the fire from there.

 

[gink595]

I usually split it and leave it in the woods a year and the ants either die , get ate by birds or leave by the time I pick it up. If I split it at home and see ants , I split it and leave it in the open away from the house and other wood where the birds and my chickens can work on them then wheel barrow small amounts close to the house and work on feeding it directly to the fire from there.

Yeah I never considered the chickens harvesting insects on or around the pile. My wife is a chicken collecting machine, within a year she's went from 5-6 chikens and 5 Guienas to a flock of 50+ chickens in 6 months. At least they might have some value to me other than keeping her happy!!!

 

[user 19670]

Yeah. I had the chickens on my mind yesterday but I put the ants into the woodstove instead. Coulda turned the ants into "cackle-fruit" for our breakfast.

 

[Mike Van]

A real quick kill on those ants is the bee spray [beebopper, whatever] you can get in spray cans. When I split a chunk with ants, it gets sprayed right then, Fast.

 

[mga]

i spray them too. better to kill them now than to have them move elsewhere later.

 

[SevenDeuce]

If it's dry wood, and I find them they go in the fire.

It's its wet/fresh cut, I get out the gas and a lighter, or a propane torch.

Make sure you knock them out of thier tunnels, they have a habit of multiplying in your wood stack, but they stay there. Mine did

 

[Zodiac45]

Yeah I never considered the chickens harvesting insects on or around the pile. My wife is a chicken collecting machine, within a year she's went from 5-6 chikens and 5 Guienas to a flock of 50+ chickens in 6 months. At least they might have some value to me other than keeping her happy!!!

Excellent idea! Anybody and everybody who heat with wood and collect thier own has had the ants deal. Sometimes you'll be sawing in the woods and see em. Just leave that piece. Most of time though, it's later on, at home splitting, that come pouring out. Honestly, I just leave em go most of the time. By the next day they've usually gone off or the birds are at them. I put all my wood for the coming winter into the barn around the end of september. I never see any residual ants from the pieces that were split and had them. I also have never seen any in the barn either, so I wouldn't be worried (as the poster noted) about bringing that wood in. If you split in spring and let it sit all summer, they're long gone by pack-in time.

 

[unclejoe]

Boric acid works great. i mix up a bit with some sugar and water to a creamy paste and paste it around the wood or where ants are marching. Say good bye. I'll put bad logs with ants aside and when the stove needs some fuel I'll run out to the pile and chuck it in ants and all.:angry2:

 

[sredlin]

Carpenter ants seem to like a fallen ash tree--if you buck it up, split it and stack it off the ground they will not bother because it has to be moist for them to thrive

 

[Wood Scrounge]

I use the granular ant killer and go around my firewood. I seldom have ants in my firewood.

I will have to do that I cracked a piece of oak that had over 1000 ants in it.

 

[wdchuck]

Excellent idea! Anybody and everybody who heat with wood and collect thier own has had the ants deal. Sometimes you'll be sawing in the woods and see em. Just leave that piece. Most of time though, it's later on, at home splitting, that come pouring out. Honestly, I just leave em go most of the time. By the next day they've usually gone off or the birds are at them. I put all my wood for the coming winter into the barn around the end of september. I never see any residual ants from the pieces that were split and had them. I also have never seen any in the barn either, so I wouldn't be worried (as the poster noted) about bringing that wood in. If you split in spring and let it sit all summer, they're long gone by pack-in time.

+1

 

[avalancher]

I have never worried about the ants myself either, unless its really bad then the piece goes on the burn pile along with all the bark pieces that gather around the splitter. After stacking the wood, I sprinkle around the stacks with the granular type of bug killer, the ants will take the granules back to the colony and kill everyone else with the carrier. When burn time comes, I have never noticed any live ants to deal with. I stack only a rick at a time by the back door, transfering the wood from behind the workshop by tractor to the house and have never had a problem.