8 Best Tips to Control Firewood Pests

Depending on where your home is located, you may see the occasional small insect or bug hanging around indoors. But if you’re noticing a lot more of them than usual – and if you operate a wood fireplace or stove – your firewood may be to blame.

A variety of pests like to be on, in or around cut wood. Keeping them out of your home and from damaging your property isn’t hard, if you follow these eight best tips to control firewood pests.

1. Store logs at least three feet from the house

When your firewood is right up against your home, wood-boring insects like termites can easily transfer from the logs to any adjacent wooden areas of the house.

2. Keep firewood a few inches off the ground

The idea here is to prevent excess moisture, which attracts bugs, from forming on the logs at the bottom of the pile. You can use firewood grates, bricks, wood pallets or other methods to accomplish this.

3. Don’t stack wood next to trees

Firewood is attractive to bark beetles and other insects that can get into trees and do considerable damage. Try to maintain at least a three-foot space between your log stack and any trees.

4. Never store wood logs inside the house

This one is fairly obvious, but a lot of people still keep large amounts of firewood inside their home near the fireplace. If your wood has bugs in or on it, storing it indoors is an invitation for them to jump off and go exploring. Additionally, wood stacks are attractive to rodents and other small wildlife, so don’t store firewood in a garage or basement.

5. Use wood cut in late-summer to late-fall

The older your firewood, the more of a chance it has been infested, so burning logs cut later in the season will be your safest bet. If you have spring- or summer-cut wood, store it covered in a sunny area to help kill off any infesting insects.

6. Use oldest logs first

Grocery stores rotate perishable products on their shelves, and you should do the same with your firewood. Deplete the wood stack before adding newer logs on top of old. Having two stacks will make this process easy.

7. Get pests off the wood

Always inspect logs before bringing them inside. You can get rid of surface insects and bugs by knocking two logs together. As to wood-boring insects, if you don’t keep logs in the house, there will be no problem, because the fire will kill them. (Note: never use a flammable bug spray on logs.)

8. If you have firewood pests in the house

The trick is to exterminate them as rapidly as possible. If left to roam around the house, they will inevitably breed and create a larger infestation. Any method that’s safe and effective is a good method for killing bugs and insects. Scheduling regular visits from an exterminator might be a wise move.

Hudson Valley Chimney of Poughkeepsie, NY, wants you to fully enjoy your fireplace or stove, and we hope these tips have been helpful. Once you’ve gotten your firewood pest problem in hand, contact us for the very best in chimney cleaning, chimney inspection, chimney repair and chimney rebuilding. We’re on call, ready to serve at (845) 471-1071.