Keeping firewood

[oliveview01]

Today at the venta bar there was a sign, a bit wet, stuck to the door, something about spraying the leña, it was difficult to read due to the ink running. Our neighbour said if you have leña it must be covered or sprayed- otherwise there is a fine- the sign was put up by the Gardia Civil. Better burn ours fast The neighbours sister did say ages ago that you should not have leña close to the olive trees without covering it. Anyone else know about this?

[Enrique]

Hi oliveview01,
Has been standard practice up this way, spray or cover.

[Campo Steve]

What's the reasoning behind this, and what do they spray the leña with?

[olive]

I can answer that.

Olive trees have many thousands of bugs in each one that are benign i.e. don't harm the tree. However prune the tree and the bugs realise that the piece of lumber they are in is dead or dying and therefore not a suitable home anymore. Within between a week and maybe four weeks the majority will have left to seek a new living host. They emerge quicker if it is hot and dry. If you look carefully at a single fire sized log you will observe many holes about 1 to 2 mm in diameter. The emerging bug looks and acts like a UK midge in terms of flying and grouping together. Their aim is to find a new host ASAP before something eats them. The host will be the nearest olive tree which could belong to someone else.

They enter the host by means of a twig joint on the outer edges of the branch. That quickly leads to the demise of that foliage supported outwards from that joint. It basically drops off. The tree ends up looking "thin" and its cropping ability is affected adversely.

The classic solution for your freshly sawn and delivered logs is either to cover with a sheet of polythene and weigh the edges down all the way round with soil and rocks OR
to spray with diesel.

Over the years i have tried both but only recommend polythene. You need to season new logs for a min of one year, 18 months is better and when you take off the polythene every log will have what looks like sawdust residue but is mostly dead harmless bugs. The dust isn't particularly pleasant to inhale. Your logs will be dry and you will have created the perfect habitate for all sorts of creepy crawlies too!

Better but probably more costly is to buy seasoned logs that some other sucker has had to cover/spray.

I haven't heard about the Gaurdia looking for folks who haven't but I would be irritated if my neighbour did it to my trees!

On a separate note. The worlds first genetically modified insects are going to be a type of olive fly. They will be sterile males and thus the fly population will diminish. It is a real problem with a Spanish spend each year in total of 30million euros (if I remember the figure correctly). That fly is one that enters the fruit itself.

[Campo Steve]

Thanks Olive. That explains why the leña suppliers around here cover their piles of wood with polythene. I thought it was to keep it dry from the rain but clearly not.

[oliveview01]

Think we will move what is left into the garage. Do not fancy spraying with diesel!!
Thanks for the reply Olive

[Campo Steve]

We keep ours in the outside store room (as big as a garage but small doors). We do that to keep it dry but it seems we were inadvertently doing the right thing.

[oliveview01]

We will be moving ours to our garage, don't want a fine!!

[Gasman]

Can you tell me if the problem only relates to olive wood, cut and stored to be used as firewood ... we tend to collect eucalyptus and pine - so do we need to cover/spray-diesel these logs too?
Cheers Olive for you excellent reply to OP

[olive]

I would say the olive fly is unique to the olive tree.

Just because you store new logs in a building doesn't mean you won't have emerging flies as a problem. You may still want to cover your pile or make the room airtight for a few weeks. If you do go the covering route then buy plenty of polythene (fold any excess over) and put an old sheet or curtain over first to prevent snagging. You will get several years out of your polythene before it starts to break down.

[oliveview01]

If you spray with diesel would it not be a bit dangerous to burn on the fire?

[gus-lopez]

If you spray with diesel would it not be a bit dangerous to burn on the fire?

Just lights easier.

[sheilap]

We get our olive wood delivered by our friendly police officer he stores his wood in big piles in the field behind our house.He delivers our wood and we pile it up outside he has never said to us we need to cover it or spray it with anything.

[biribiri]

We get our olive wood delivered by our friendly police officer he stores his wood in big piles in the field behind our house.He delivers our wood and we pile it up outside he has never said to us we need to cover it or spray it with anything.

Same guy as we use, and like the law abiding police officer he is. He never gives us a receipt

[Trooperman]

Interesting thread!
Is there a law about this?
Is there a geographical limit to this requirement?
Anyone?

[oliveview01]

The poster that was up at the Venta did say it was a law- but what law I cannot remember!

[Trooperman]

Probably one that a Guardia Civil officer thought ought to be in place

[oliveview01]

Our Spanish neighbour told us a few years ago that if we had wood in the garden over summer it had to be sprayed or covered or we would get into trouble. We normally use the wood up, so never thought anymore of it.