A friend of mine has a major problem with powder post beetles. ( Of all the woods in the shed they seem to like cherry the best dammit !!!! ) I am looking for any information about prevention and eradication. I have heard that the best way to prevent infestation is to edge the bark off of all your lumber before storage….???
If it came down to removing every bit of lumber out of the shed and burning it, is there any way to fumigate the empty shed before putting new lumber in it. Would that be effective? Thanks!!
Brookfield Woodworking
Cushing, Maine
Cushing, Maine
Replies
Their probably after the sap wood on cherry. A saw mill operator once told me to remove all sap wood from cherry before drying.
Do a google search for "Diatomaceous Earth"
Might consider using it next time
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
If you (or he, rather) do the tent fumigation, it'll kill anything and everything inside the tent. I did a home with a small patio many moons ago, and the earwigs that were living underneath the cement patio just boiled up out of the ground and died. That stuff is very, very lethal. No residue though, which is great.
If you end up using diatomaceous earth for prevention, be aware that breathing it might not be too good for you or any pets that get into it.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Thanks for the suggestions. Diatomaceous earth worked great when we had a flea problem in the house.
Brookfield Woodworking
Cushing, Maine
Hey forestgirl,
Earwigs?
Those daring young men in their flying machines!
FG,
Ref. post #5 "earwigs?"
Must not be from around here!!LOL"WISH IN ONE HAND, #### IN THE OTHER AND SEE WHICH FILLS UP FIRST"
Mack & F4: OK, everyone's laughing at me and I don't know why! What do we call 'em up here?? Did I say something funny that I'm oblivious to, LOL?! forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Hey fg,
This is the first I'm hearing of earwigs. I'm not laughing, just curious! I assume it's an insect, but then I'm not an entomologist and unfortunately I don't know any. Maybe we've got them here in New York, but refer to them by a different name?
Those daring young men in their flying machines!
They are called earwigs here in NY also. At least in the western end of the state.The Professional Termite
Hi Trialnut,
I'm in Westchester County, I haven't been paying close attention, I know what to look for now that I've seen FG's post! We probably have them down here also.
Those daring young men in their flying machines!
OK! You asked for it! Click here for loverly pictures and info on their way of life and the origin of their name.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Hi FG,
Ugly Suckers!
I've done quite a few small scale demolition jobs, and work in the garden. I've never paid close attention to whatever bugs I saw! I just kept working. Now I know what to look for. Thanks for the enlightenment fg.
Those daring young men in their flying machines!
I'd imagine you'd find earwigs just about anywhere. If I leave a saucer outside on the deck, a plant pot or whatever, and pick it up early in the morning when it's cool, there are usually quite a few of them cozying up underneath. Really pretty harmless, just ugly. I never realized how many were around any given area until that fumigation job got done (it was for dry-wood termites).forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
FG;
I can't believe the little buggers have their own website!!! LOL
Regards,
Mdack"WISH IN ONE HAND, #### IN THE OTHER AND SEE WHICH FILLS UP FIRST"
No there are earwigs on the east coast, we've got 'em up in NH. All though I wouldn't call them prolific.
Datachanel
Doing things the hard way
Thanks for the info, I've never seen any, guess I'll have to start looking.
Those daring young men in their flying machines!
FG
At least I know what you're talking about - must be a Pacific rim thing, in which case I'm happy to send them all of ours.
LOL
Don
Forest Girl,
I call 'em earwigs! Despicable, grotesque and incideous little b*****ds! I don't know if they have a different name here or elsewhere but anyone that's lived in the NW more than a week knows what an earwig is ("must not be from around here").
Regards,
Mack "WISH IN ONE HAND, #### IN THE OTHER AND SEE WHICH FILLS UP FIRST"
EWE
The best prevention is possibly two-fold. Firstly remove sap wood on susceptible species before stacking & where possible kiln dry the timber.
I know that either are not always practicable but even fumigation a non-residual fumigant like methyl bromide will only kill the existing infestation & not prevent reinfestation.
Don
I had a problem with them in a piece of furniture I bought in Charlestown, SC. I talked to antique dealers, furniture restorers, and pest control people. The most info. I got was from several University sites on the internet. If I recall correctly I got good info. from Ohio State University and the University of Kentucky.
Good Luck
For furniture you can put it in a big plastic bag and set off an insect bomb. Leave sealed up several days.Gretchen
Has anyone had any success using insect bombs and tenting to kill powder post beetles?
Seems like that approach would kill only the ones exiting the wood. Wouldn't touch the ones that are still in there. If it takes, say, 10 days for them to finish their exodus, you'd have to bomb over that whole period of time, wouldn'tcha?forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
"Seems like that approach would kill only the ones exiting the wood. Wouldn't touch the ones that are still in there. If it takes, say, 10 days for them to finish their exodus, you'd have to bomb over that whole period of time, wouldn'tcha?"
That, and the bombs don't use the same chemical used by professional fumigators. Conventional wisdom says it shouldn't work.
My question was has anyone actually tried the bug bombs? Sometimes test results defy conventional wisdom.
I've got a small oak log out back that has beetles in it, I may rig up a bug bomb test just for grins.
"don't use the same chemical used by professional fumigators" No kidding! I had a small home tent-fumigated years ago for dry-wood termites. That stuff was lethal at something like 16 parts per billion! He told me a couple stories about people who didn't pay attention to the "Danger -- Do Not Enter" signs. Ooops.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I soaked turning blanks in a saturated boric acid solution, then left them to dry. Some kind of small insect is boring into my manzanita burls, probably a local variety of a powderpost beetle.
Boric acid is pretty toxic to insects. We use a paste of boric acid powder and honey to bait ants. They don't disappear completely, but the swarm dies off. The oldest boric acid treated burl is about six months now so it's a little early to see if it's really protected.
Because I don't know much about the toxicology of boric acid and it's availability while turning and sanding, I overkill dust collection and a good dust mask. Then, I wash up when I'm done.
There aren't any fumigants that you can buy (foggers) that will kill all the beetles and larvae. The pros use sulfuryl fluoride ("Vikane") - you can't buy it and you don't want to - let the pros do it. Vikane replaced methyl bromide, an ozone layer destroyer.
As an experiment, you could try putting a piece of the wood in a covered container with a LOOSE top along with a piece of dry ice. Carbon dioxide in more than tiny concentrations is deadly. We put five or so pounds into all the openings of a ground squirril maze and cover them. The gas is cold and heavy and sinks into the burrow. It works really well when they're active.
I went through this with some white oak a couple of years ago. I contacted the local state extension service and they gave me two options:
1. Bring the wood down to zero degrees for 24 hours, or
2. Have it professionally 'vault fumigated.'
I did the latter, because I lived in Portland, Oregon at the time and if it ever gets that cold there, bugs would be the least of my problems. I took the wood to a local pest control place, and they put the pile in a sealed shipping container and fumed it with some ungodly toxic chemical that you or I couldn't buy, and I picked it up a couple of days later. They assured me (and I believed them) that the wood was not made toxic by the process, and that all the chemicals used would become inert after they were done. I think the process cost something like $125, at the most.
The trick with the beetles is killing the unhatched eggs. A bug bomb will get rid of those hapless hatched ones, but the unhatched bugs will remain unaffected. So far, so good. I still have some of the wood and haven't seen any sign of re-infestation.
If you know someone with a walk-in freezer who owes you a favor or who thinks you're cute, you could try the freezing method. Or if you live somewhere that gets cold, well, winter is coming on fast. (It snowed here in upstate New York this morning.)
Good luck, and don't forget the eggs.
Matt
Thanks Matt
We have plenty of cold weather here in Maine!
Brookfield Woodworking
Cushing, Maine
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