Longview homeowners know the drill. Sure seems like sound planning, what with the cold snaps sweeping down the Columbia in the winter months and a firewood stash close at hand. However, that neat little pile of lumber behind the garage or under the deck may be paving the way for an insect superhighway to your home. Cowlitz County’s warm, humid climate provides the ideal environment for wood-boring beetles, carpenter ants, termites, and rodents to breed and infest your stored firewood.
Until insect after insect is scurrying across the living room floor of residents’ homes and mysterious holes are appearing in their homes’ frames, few realize that their pile of firewood is a five-star pest hotel. If you experience random pest activity, hiring pointepest.com to analyze your home can determine whether your firewood storage is the source.
Longview’s Perfect Storm: Moisture, Wood, and Shelter
The location of Longview creates a unique challenge for pest control. With about 50 inches of rainfall per year, the outdoor wood never dries. Not only does this moisture affect the quality of firewood, but it also makes wood piles a breeding ground. Wood that is high in moisture is naturally attractive to bark beetles, powderpost beetles, and carpenter ants.
Firewood that rests on the ground or is stacked against outside walls absorbs moisture from the ground, and dark, protected pockets form where pests build their colonies. Longview pest populations can survive the cold months and expand year-round due to wet winters, warm temperatures, and a smattering of wooden structures throughout the neighborhoods.
How Outdoor Firewood Leads to Indoor Infestations
-
The Migration Pattern
Pests do not reside in firewood indefinitely. When the logs you bring inside hitch a ride with the insects as cold weather approaches. Carpenter ants already in an outdoor stack will create a scent trail from the wood pile to the wood framing of your home. Entomological studies have shown that hundreds of insect larvae can be sleeping in a single log, waiting for indoor heating to warm them.
-
The Proximity Problem
When you stack firewood within 5 feet of your home, you create a bridge for pests. Termites can tunnel through the soil, allowing them to attack the firewood and your home at the same time. Two homeowners in Cowlitz County have reported structural damage costing thousands of dollars because subterranean termites established satellite colonies in firewood piles before moving on to the main house.
The Mistakes Most Homeowners Don’t Realize They’re Making
- Stacking wood directly against the house or garage – This removes the buffer between pest ecosystems and your home and also traps moisture against the siding.
- Storing firewood on bare ground – Firewood sitting on the bare earth sucks up excess moisture in rain, and allows easy access for ground-dwelling insects and rodents in search of refuge
- Covering wood piles with tarps that touch the ground – While it seems bright to protect wood from the rain, tarps seal humidity in and make a dark, warm environment that pests thrive in
- Keeping firewood for multiple seasons – When wood sits for over a year, it begins to break down and becomes more appealing to wood-boring insects.
How Firewood Pests Multiply Into Bigger Problems
A couple of beetles on your firewood pile can quickly morph into an infestation. Carpenter ants do not nest in firewood; they excavate galleries that undermine the wood’s structure. The destruction speeds up as they migrate from your woodpile to the framing of your residence. Female beetles typically lay 40-60 eggs per season; the larvae live inside wood for months before emerging as adults. The rodents that wood piles attract bring their own set of problems: they gnaw through electrical wires, contaminate insulation, and can slip through holes the size of a quarter.
Staying Ahead With Professional Help
In a pest-friendly place like Longview, prevention is always better than cure. That is precisely why Pointe Pest Control understands the concerns local homeowners have about firewood and the timing of pest pressure. They provide comprehensive inspections that highlight all aspects of your property that may be vulnerable to pests, including how your wood pile may be attracting pests to your home.