A wood burning stove or a fireplace makes your home nice and cozy in winter. But firewood that is brought into the home is not quite as comforting because of the pests that get carried with it!
Thankfully, control of firewood pests is mostly about correctly storing firewood outdoors and taking good care of it when kept in storage.
How to Keep Firewood Pests Out of Your Home
- Store firewood away from buildings as woodpiles need to be stored away from the house and other buildings as they bring wood boring pests that burrow into the wood and enter the structure. By stacking the wood against your home, you essentially invite wood-boring pests to take up residence in your home. Store firewood at least 3 feet away from a structure.
- Stack firewood off the ground and keep concrete blocks and bricks, firewood grates to prevent the wood from contacting the ground. Maintaining an airflow underneath the pile also helps reduce moisture and prevents insects from getting attracted.
- Do not pile wood next to living trees because bark beetles or live insects can crawl into the dead wood and tunnel its way through! You also need to be careful about stacking wood indoors. Avoid keeping firewood in the basement and garage as insects can find refuge in the shade and firewood can be attractive to rodents and wildlife insect pests.
- Wood needs to be stored in sunny areas and covered to kill off insects that infest the wood. To further minimize the new infestations in spring, summer-emergent pests need to be avoided when transporting wood into your home. Restacking the pile of logs also makes it easier to access older wood as they may be at risk of worm infestations.
- Before you bring in any wood into the house to use in a fire, you must inspect each wood to shake them and knock them together! You must get rid of pests that are on the surface and are beginning to emerge.
Prevention is always better than cure when it comes to wood boring pests such as carpenter ants and termites. These cannot be swatted or simply vacuumed. These tenacious insects can seek shelter inside and damage your home from within.