Black Ants in Maple?

[tla100]

Well I started cutting and splitting some maple logs, probably 30-40" diameter. The middle of some are "rotten" looking with tons of black carpenter ants I believe. Lots of white larvae with kind of a button head. Anyway, it is very wet, spongy.

To my point, is it ok to stack with the rest of my wood and will they spread? I did split a lot of it but kept it separate for now. My setup for stacking is in a few old galvanized grain wagons with back removed, rotten floors replaced with thick welded mesh, about 2/3 mesh, so I can get airflow up and thru it. Trying to keep all wood off the ground and hate stacking twice. This winter I plan on wheeling in my heated garage so I don't have to go out and get cold....heh...I still have to bring into house in basement where stove is.

Will these little pesks give me trouble? Should I leave it outside for the fire pit in the summer?

Thanks in advance! Timmy

 

[blades]

I shear off/ cut / or whatever of the bad spongy/rotted or infested stuff before I stack it. When I have time I run that junk through my chipper shredder( not the little MTD style units) Birds have a feast for awhile.

 

[1project2many]

If you can keep the wood dry the ants don't want to get into it as badly. Old rotten stuff acts like a sponge though and doesn't like to dry out so it's good to remove it if you can. I'd never stack the wood with ants inside. A little oil or gasoline kills them quickly. Let the wood sit outside to air out before stacking though. Accumulating fumes in an old grain trailer might not be a good idea.

 

[stumpy75]

A little Home Defense Max will take care of the problem. That, and what 1project2many said about the moisture.

 

[zogger]

Man, I really like your idea of stacking in old trailers.

Stuff I find with ants I throw off to the side when split, stack it later. They move out once the wood is split.

 

[Whitespider]

Without the moisture, the ants will move on; without the moisture they dehydrate and die.
They won't "spread" into your split firewood stacks 'cause the moisture-rich environment just ain't there.
But, it always makes me wonder just a little bit... exactly where, or what, did they move into??
*

 

[BWS-LLC]

I throw maple pieces like that on my wood pile, I haven't had issues yet.

I figure they were working at these big maples for a while, and they won't have time to damage my good wood before winter rolls around and kills them.

But, anything soft and spongy gets tossed aside.

 

[svk]

When I split into ant infested wood, I give it a strong toss onto the ground to knock out anything that is semi loose then let the splits sit on the ground for a day to a few days. Most ants move out once the sun gets on the wood. If you find them in the wood pile after this give the infested piece a good spray and that should solve things.

I split a lot of aspen/black ash/red maple this spring that had ants and only had one piece that ended up holding ants into the woodpile. Raid ended their occupancy very quickly.

 

[Fred Wright]

Yup the ants will leave when their home is cut and split. When the tree is dropped they'll abandon the stump they've been living in.

No worries about carpenter ants infesting the rest of your stacks, they won't bother dry wood. But man, they're icky, crawling all over and around the splitter.

Most of the red maples I've cut here have carpenter ant nests somewhere, mostly in the base. Have found 'em in a partially healed limb hole 'way up in the top of a tree.

 

[svk]

The only problem with ants I have is with the smaller (3/8") red and black "field ants" that haul other nest material stuff into my sauna building and the woodpile nearby. They bring dirt and grass clippings up into the woodpile for their nest. Bite is several times worse than a fire ant. I have declared all out warfare on them for the last two summers and havent seen any for about a month.

 

[tla100]

These trees were just cut in May or so and have been on the ground since. Mostly silver maple. I have been shearing off bad stuff but there is some good solid with some trails running thru as it gets closer to the outside. I have some good Tempo I can spray em with before I stack too.

I had some wasps coming out of some wood at the end of winter this year. It was a long dead, standing solid tree I cut and burnt cause I ran out. Not sure what kind but white/bleached wood and no bark. Maybe cottonwood or elm, don't know.

The wagons are old galvanized sides and some have hydraulic cylinder to dump, some not. Not covered. Will try loading some pics of them. Going to load an old hayrack up and throw a tarp over most of it this winter and should get airflow up and out the sides a bit.

 

[fubar2]

Those ants snap crackle and pop when you burn them.

 

[GrassGuerilla]

Split, stack, dry, burn. It's firewood, not furniture.