Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[H-Ranch]

Half-hearted swings with the Fiskars in a few minutes this morning and the stuff I cut yesterday is all split. SOOO easy! I the ash.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Unless its twisted grain fenceline ash.

 

[steved]

I built this trailer last year to ferry wood to the house without making multiple trips...I can leave the bugs outside, bring in a couple pieces at a time.

And by bugs, I have what look like black cockroaches residing between the sticks of wood in my woodpile. So I'd rather leave them outside...cold doesn't seem to kill them.

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[LondonNeil]

I seem to get wasps in my wood pile..I average about 6 or 7 per cord, queen wasps brought in to the house so they wake in the warmth and dozily buzz around the room like some insectile Chinook helicopter....before I swat them, splat!

 

[svk]

Interesting, the only bugs I’ve ever had come out of dormancy are a few ants.

I can bet they aren’t too pleasant to be awoken.

 

[muddstopper]

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Hey guys haven’t been on in a little while. I have been busy cutting up almond trees it’s a lot of work once they are put into piles. I’m thinking I should get about 15-20 cords out of here before we burn the piles it’s kinda sad all this good firewood going to waste.

From the look of those pikes, it doesn't look like almond has a lot of wood per tree. To many small limbs with little trunk wood. I have some experience in scrounging wood from big piles of whole trees, altho there is considerable more trunk wood in small oaks. What I usually do is cut off the stump and hook a chain to the trunk and drag the tree out of the pile and then saw it up. Take the pile down one tree at a time until there is nothing left but the small stuff. I find this method a lot easier and safer than trying to climb around in the piles while running a chainsaw.

 

[muddstopper]

Please don't remind my wife about bugs hatching in the firewood. It was colder than blue blazes one year and I filled the inside wood box as full as I could get it. The next morning we awoke to about a million little praying mantis crawling all over the walls and ceilings.. They where all over the house in every room. Even using a shop vac, we couldn't get them all. It was several weeks and some pretty large mantis's later, before we got them all.

 

[steved]

Interesting, the only bugs I’ve ever had come out of dormancy are a few ants.

I can bet they aren’t too pleasant to be awoken.

I've had carpenter ants in cherry and sassafras...hundreds in each piece, they sizzle and pop in the fire.

These are either a beetle larvae or a type of woodland cockroach. I'll try to get a picture next time I haul wood...I must have dumped 50 to 100 off this trailer load alone.

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[steved]

I seem to get wasps in my wood pile..I average about 6 or 7 per cord, queen wasps brought in to the house so they wake in the warmth and dozily buzz around the room like some insectile Chinook helicopter....before I swat them, splat!

I had an entire colony of yellow jackets take residence in my woodpile a few years ago...luckily they don't do cold well and die off soon after it freezes.

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[svk]

We’ve had much worse issues if we leave wood in the sauna dressing room over the summer. Had a whole damn fleet of field ants move in and it took me 15 years to exterminate all of them!

 

[LondonNeil]

Interesting, the only bugs I’ve ever had come out of dormancy are a few ants.

I can bet they aren’t too pleasant to be awoken.

I had an entire colony of yellow jackets take residence in my woodpile a few years ago...luckily they don't do cold well and die off soon after it freezes.

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our wasps nests just last a summer, then the new queens leave the nest and hibernate through the winter while the workers die off once its cold. I've found a fair few dead adults in the wood this year but only had a couple inside the house where they wake up ..but only enough to slowly circle the room. the queens are pretty large for a wasp and a bit scary looking and with young kids I'm always concerned they might stand on one and get stung, so I always chase them down and swat them, generally ok although i have had a few disappear on top of cupboards or even into a light rose for a day or two

 

[hamish]

Field Report
Beers cold, no bugs, no mud

Seeing as i dont have any tamerac in my bush, had to go for a little tour

 

[muddstopper]

I had an entire colony of yellow jackets take residence in my woodpile a few years ago...luckily they don't do cold well and die off soon after it freezes.

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I had my run in with yellow jackets this summer. I was using the tractor to scoop up wood to load my dump trailer when I started getting swarmed. I threw the tractor in reverse and backed up about 200yrds as fast as I could and those buggers where still chasing me. I got stung at least a half dozen times before I finally out ran them. Lost my eyeglasses next to the nest and had to wait until they died down to retrieve them.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

I've had carpenter ants in cherry and sassafras...hundreds in each piece, they sizzle and pop in the fire.

These are either a beetle larvae or a type of woodland cockroach. I'll try to get a picture next time I haul wood...I must have dumped 50 to 100 off this trailer load alone.

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Do you treat around your house to kill carpenter ants. It's just part of my spring routine battle, man vs ants, they try to destroy our buildings here.

 

[steved]

Do you treat around your house to kill carpenter ants. It's just part of my spring routine battle, man vs ants, they try to destroy our buildings here.

I had a company out to look my house over, they told me that the way my house is situated, it's not conducive for either carpenter ants or termites. The ground is open for hundreds of feet, nothing for them to travel along. Gets too dry in the summer, not the right ground, etc.

The ants I've encountered were actually imported about 250 miles to here...they stay dormant in the cold.

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[svk]

Do you treat around your house to kill carpenter ants. It's just part of my spring routine battle, man vs ants, they try to destroy our buildings here.

I do that as soon as I see them in/near the house. Sometimes it’s necessary in early June, sometimes they never show.

 

[woodchip rookie]

I get alot of Black Locust borors. In ash and maple.

 

[LondonNeil]

Still....we all know @Cowboy254 is going to win the 'critter in the woodpile' comp.

 

[JustJeff]

Was out staking and clearing snowmobile trails this weekend. My buddy Lou didn't want to wait for the saw on this blowdown.


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[Philbert]

. . . we awoke to about a million little praying mantis crawling all over the walls and ceilings.. . It was several weeks and some prett y large mantis's later, before we got them all.

Turned into a house of prayer.

Philbert