Growing up I manually split wood with a sledge hammer and a wedge.
Most of the wood split was from felled tree hardwood left over from clearing my parents building lot. Through the years I dealt with carpenter ant colonies, yellow jacket nests and eventually old, rotting wood.
I now, 50 years later own a heavily wooded property where I live, and for a good part of the year burn wood for heat. I only cut and split trees that come down in storms and try to preserve the forest nature of my property.
Some trees come down due to high winds, but many are coming down with disease, beetles and rot!
Cutting and splitting rounds of wood, I have come across large one inch larva, and areas filled vestwith what sees like hundreds of black beetles ranging in size from a few millimeters up to just under a centimeter in length. The larva and Beatles are alive and active!
Will these beetles and larva survive and attack my cut and stacked/ seasoning firewood that was healthy?
Or will they die off and not survive living in now dead cut wood?
Not myself being an entomologist I don't know. To all of you folks who cut, split, stack and burn wood, what should I do with the tree or wood harvested and spilt when I find beetles?
Are they parasites that will die off or seek other living trees to attack, or will they live on in my firewood stacks and attack my other split seasoning uninvolved wood like saporifites?
I certainly don't want them to live on and destroy my firewood like I experienced with carpenter ants, what should be done with the infested trees and split wood?
Most of the wood split was from felled tree hardwood left over from clearing my parents building lot. Through the years I dealt with carpenter ant colonies, yellow jacket nests and eventually old, rotting wood.
I now, 50 years later own a heavily wooded property where I live, and for a good part of the year burn wood for heat. I only cut and split trees that come down in storms and try to preserve the forest nature of my property.
Some trees come down due to high winds, but many are coming down with disease, beetles and rot!
Cutting and splitting rounds of wood, I have come across large one inch larva, and areas filled vestwith what sees like hundreds of black beetles ranging in size from a few millimeters up to just under a centimeter in length. The larva and Beatles are alive and active!
Will these beetles and larva survive and attack my cut and stacked/ seasoning firewood that was healthy?
Or will they die off and not survive living in now dead cut wood?
Not myself being an entomologist I don't know. To all of you folks who cut, split, stack and burn wood, what should I do with the tree or wood harvested and spilt when I find beetles?
Are they parasites that will die off or seek other living trees to attack, or will they live on in my firewood stacks and attack my other split seasoning uninvolved wood like saporifites?
I certainly don't want them to live on and destroy my firewood like I experienced with carpenter ants, what should be done with the infested trees and split wood?
