Whether you have a fireplace in your living room, wood stove in your basement, or cabin in the woods, having a good supply of firewood is a must. Unfortunately, this wood can attract a wide range of pests, some of which might hitch a ride into your home.
Let’s take a moment to look at ways to remove bugs from a wood pile and ways to prevent an infestation. Then we’ll touch on some common bugs that like to take shelter in your firewood.
See Also: How to Get Rid of Christmas Tree Bugs
Keeping Bugs Out of Firewood
By far, the best way to avoid having to deal with bugs in your wood is to not have them there in the first place. Here are several simple ways you can help keep your wood pile pest-free.
#1 – Create a Buffer
Always position your firewood stack at least three feet away from any structure. This buffer zone serves two purposes – it reduces the likelihood of pests traveling from the wood pile into your home and helps maintain proper airflow around the stack to prevent moisture buildup.
You’ll also want to clear away any brush near the wood pile and keep it away from trees, since bugs can easily discover your pile if they’re already in the vicinity. Plus, any wood-boring insects in your firewood could potentially find their way to nearby trees.
#2 – Elevate Your Wood Pile
Raise your firewood stack at least a foot off the ground. This elevation makes it harder for crawling insects to access your wood and helps discourage predators like lizards and snakes. For the best results, use treated metal supports for elevation. If those aren’t available, pre-treated and sealed wood pallets can work as an alternative solution.
#3 – Keep Your Firewood Dry
Use a tarp or shelter to protect your firewood from moisture. Dry firewood isn’t just better for burning, it’s also less appealing to many common pests. Insects like powderpost beetles and pill bugs have a strong preference for green or damp wood, so keeping your pile dry naturally deters these unwanted visitors.
#4 – Time Your Wood Harvesting
Try to harvest your firewood between mid and late fall. This timing is important because it helps avoid many wood-boring species that typically lay their eggs in wood during other seasons. Smart harvesting timing can significantly reduce your risk of pest problems before they begin.
#5 – Separate Old and New Wood
Place a divider in your wood pile between newer and older wood. This simple organization method helps prevent infestations from spreading and allows you to use the most efficient wood first. Older wood typically burns better, so using it first also improves your heating efficiency.
#6 – Minimize Indoor Storage
Only bring in the amount of firewood you plan to use within a couple of days. That stack by your fireplace or stove shouldn’t last longer than that. The longer wood stays indoors, the more likely you are to have unwanted pest visitors making themselves at home.
#7 – Source Wood Responsibly
If you’re going to a campground or other vacation spot, don’t bring your own wood. Instead either use locally sourced wood or purchase sealed packs of treated firewood. This reduces the risk of bringing along hitchhikers and helps prevent the spread of invasive species and pests between different regions.
Getting Bugs Out of Firewood
Insects and arachnids alike tend to infest wood piles, either for food or shelter. This has resulted in a lot of (usually bad) advice on how to deal with these infestations. Here are few of the most common questions regarding infested firewood.
Can I Burn Firewood With Termites?
Yes, you can burn wood infested with termites or other critters, but with a few caveats.
For starters, you don’t want to bring the wood inside until you’re ready to burn it. Second, infested firewood can sometimes be a bit difficult to control due to all of the air pockets. Thus it’s important to use fire screens or other protection to prevent the spread of sparks.
Can I Kill Wood Borers in Firewood?
This depends on the time of year. If you’re harvesting during the fall, you can debark it before adding to your pile of firewood. This will eliminate most of the eggs and can prevent larvae from hatching or developing. Unfortunately, there’s no way to easily eliminate borers once they’ve burrowed deep into the logs outside of burning them.
Can I Treat Firewood With Pesticides?
In general, it’s not a good idea to add chemicals to your wood pile. When burned, the residue can create toxic fumes. However, it’s possible to spray the wood with a non-residue pesticide as long as you don’t burn it before the chemicals have dissipated.
Note that this only affects surface infestations, as the chemicals won’t soak in deep enough to affect wood-boring insects.
How Do I Know My Wood is Infested?
This is a more difficult question to answer because it involves several steps and isn’t always 100 percent guaranteed. That said, try the following inspection methods:
- Inspect the firewood for obvious signs of infestation, including small holes, sawdust-like material (e.g. termite frass), tunnels under bark, discoloration, or visible insects. Pay special attention to any logs showing signs of decay, as these are particularly attractive to pests.
- Shake the wood and knock a couple pieces together over a tarp or other surface so you can see if any bugs are dislodged. Do this in good lighting and check the tarp carefully as some wood-boring insects can be quite small. Ideally, the tarp’s color would contrast with common pest colors (white or light-colored tarps work well).
- Check for webbing between logs, which can indicate spider activity.
Will Temperature Kill Any Bugs?
Few bugs can withstand extreme temperatures, especially cold. A chest freezer is a great way to kill bugs. Just make sure you don’t have food in there and leave the wood to freeze for a couple days. Clean the freezer before putting food back in it to avoid any contamination.
Alternatively, for an easy heat treatment, place the wood in your oven at 150 degrees for four or five hours. This will literally bake the bugs to death. Again, you might want to clean your oven before putting food in it.
Related: Where Do Spiders Go In Winter?
Common Wood-Infesting Bugs
There’s a wide range of bugs that might take up residence in your wood pile. Here are some of the more common ones.
Ants – While carpenter ants are most commonly associated with wood, other species will happily hide under a pile or in the cracks of your firewood.
Bees and Wasps – Some types of bees and wasps have been known to take up residence in rotting wood. These include carpenter bees, horntail wasps, and the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), which thankfully has not been spotted in the US since 2022.
Beetles – One of the most common invaders of wood piles, beetles include some of the most destructive insects despite their tiny size. Keep a lookout for the ambrosia beetle, bark beetle, and wood-boring beetle, to name a few.
Centipedes and Millipedes – These two hunters are both efficient hunters, although centipedes are more vicious than millipedes. Chances are, you don’t want either creepy crawly in your home. However, if there are spiders or insects hiding in your wood pile, there’s a good chance one of these two critters will be on the prowl.
Christmas Tree Bugs – Christmas tree bugs aren’t a single species or type of bug. Instead, they’re a category of pests so named because they’re often found infesting Christmas trees. They can include anything from borers to piercing insects such as mealybugs or even moth larvae.
Roaches – While most roach species prefer to stay outdoors, wood roaches like the palmetto bug are commonly found in firewood piles. These large roaches feed on decaying wood and organic matter, making wood stacks an ideal habitat.
Spiders – You don’t have to have arachnophobia to get upset when a spider crawls out of your firewood. These critters will not only hunt for potential prey in the wood, but also use it to safely lay their eggs.
Termites – Nobody wants to run into termites, but firewood piles are a common hangout for these pests. While they rarely infest homes directly from firewood, they can establish colonies nearby.
Honorable Mentions – Here are a few other common bugs you might find in your firewood:
- Boxelder bugs (most commonly on boxelder trees)
- Earwigs (hunters and feeds on decaying matter)
- Lanternflies (lay their eggs on harvested wood)
- Moths (commonly lay eggs on wood, larvae sometimes hides beneath loose bark)
Morgan is a certified entomologist and pest control consultant and a member of the National Pest Management Association.
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