What’s the Best Way to Keep Termites Away from Your Firewood?

If you enjoy having fires, whether in an outdoor fire pit or in an indoor fireplace, you’ll want to be well-stocked on wood all year long so you can keep the fires going. Of course, the more wood you have, the more storage space you’ll need, and if you don’t know how to store firewood, you will likely end up with wood that rots or gets chewed up by termites.

With this in mind, here’s a quick overview of how to keep termites away from firewood in Utah. There are several main factors to consider:

• Location: You should always keep firewood at least a few feet away from any buildings on your property, including your home, garage or sheds. If you place the wood right up against a structure, this creates cool, dark and potentially moist areas that are more likely to attract termites.
• Raise the wood: You should never store the wood directly on the ground. There are a couple reasons for this. First, the moisture from the ground will seep into the wood, causing rot to set in. That rot will slowly spread. Second, it becomes easier for termites to locate the wood. You should make it a point to raise all the wood you’re storing about eight to 12 inches off the ground, using special firewood storage racks.
• Do not apply pesticides: Many people are under the mistaken impression that they can apply pesticides to stored firewood to kill off termites or prevent infestations from forming. This is incorrect. The pesticides will not be able to penetrate the wood enough to make a difference, as termites can bury themselves deep into the wood. Plus, once you burn that wood, the presence of those pesticides could result in the spread of toxic fumes that can be dangerous for people to breathe in.
• Have a metal base: Use a piece of sheet metal as a base for your firewood stack. This will prevent the bottom pieces of wood from being vulnerable to moisture or potential infestation. You could even create a metal base that has small walls, forming a sort of shallow box. This will also prevent termites or other pests from crawling over the edge of the sheet to access the lower pieces of wood.

If you’ve had termite issues in the past, it’s understandable that you might be concerned about bringing the wood into your house. Most of the time you won’t need to worry about this, especially if you’re just burning the wood right away; it won’t give the termites time to spread. But even if you’re temporarily storing some wood indoors, the queen will always be outside and underground, and a new infestation cannot start without the queen.

Need more information about how to store firewood in Utah so you can prevent termite damage and rot? Contact Huberwoods today and we will be happy to provide you with more information about proper storage of wood of all types. Reach out to learn more about our selection of firewood!

Categorised in: Firewood

This post was written by Writer