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There is something truly comforting in the winter about sitting in your favourite chair, in front of your stove or fireplace, watching a nice, crackling wood fire. And close by, you have a supply of dry, split firewood.
But sorry to burst the image: if you bring wood inside the house from the cold, there’s a good chance that you might be introducing bugs that were quietly hibernating in the wood.
Firewood can give shelter to many insects either under the bark or inside the wood, as larvae or as adults. The change from cold to warm makes the bugs think that it is spring, and they wake up to come out to check your place out. Most are harmless.
Here are 3 recommendations to avoid the problem.
You might have bark beetles, boring beetles, carpenter ants and termites sleeping inside your firewood. Other non-boring insects might possibly show up as hitchhikers, like sowbugs, millipedes, pillbugs, ants, centipedes, wasps, spiders, flies, cockroaches, ladybugs, etc. Most are a nuisance, but harmless.
No need to panic, just make sure you bring in only as much wood as you can burn in a day or two. The bugs won’t have time to emerge and cause trouble. The problems will occur, of course, if you plan to store a lot of firewood inside for a longer period.