# Wood Seasoning and boring bugs



## NextEndeavor (Jun 6, 2012)

Today I went out to check on the progress of the drying process. To my surprise, something is consuming my wood! These little boring bugs, somewhere between the larva and pupa stage (Wikipedia) are really having a party. I have several different types of wood stacked in 12 ft rows with 40 inches of air space between for quick seasoning. All 7 cords of this area has been c/s/s between January and April 1st of this year. Two very interesting observations: 1) damage is visible only in the honey locust; 2) when it'd dead calm (no wind) ....... I can hear them chomping away!
Moral of the story: honey locust may not be lighter only due to a lower moisture content!


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## Oregon Bigfoot (Jun 7, 2012)

Wow, I just cut some HL.  I hope them buggars are not feasting on my firewood.  I will check next time I am at my sister's house, where it's stored.  That's bizarre.


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## fishingpol (Jun 7, 2012)

It looks like powder post beetles. They will run their cycle and leave. I see that here with cherry sometimes. They will be on their way in time. Its' the bigger boring beetle larvae that I can't stand.


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## Woody Stover (Jun 7, 2012)

I've never seen that much dust with powder post beetles. Never had any HL here, but the post beetles attack Hickory.
I have heard chomping on occasion, too. I didn't pursue it at the time to see what kind of bug was doing the chomping, though....


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## JoeyD (Jun 7, 2012)

That is a lot of dust. Sorry I can't help you identify what is going on but if it was my wood I would try pulling out the infested pieces and into the fire pit they would go. But then again I have a tendency to go nuclear.


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## blujacket (Jun 7, 2012)

Locust Borers.They like Mulberry too. Boogers are eating a stack of mine right now.


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## Wood Duck (Jun 7, 2012)

I get the same thing with Honey Locust here.


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## ScotO (Jun 7, 2012)

No matter how hard you try, you won't get rid of them.  They won't  ruin your wood, so just let them run their course.  Nothing you can do about it.  They are working my stack as we speak.


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## Sisu (Jun 7, 2012)

They are doing their part to aid in seasoning.  The wood dries faster that way!


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## fossil (Jun 7, 2012)

I invariably get something like that, but perhaps a smaller bug, boring into stacked Juniper.  Always the little telltale dust piles.  It's interesting, because I have live Junipers all over my property, and I've never seen any sign that the same bugs are boring into them...only after it's cut, split, and stacked.  And they don't seem to have any interest in any other species of wood.    In any case, they've yet to consume any significant portion of my firewood, and I always have the satisfaction of sending them into the stove.    I don't do a darned thing about them, whatever they are.  Rick


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## Ashful (Jun 7, 2012)

So, which generates more BTU's?  The wood they consumed from the hole, or the bug hibernating in the hole?

I make it a rule to never leave wood sitting indoors in winter, lest those dormant bugs start to feel warm and wake up.  Probably unfounded (save the queen, most die off each winter), but nonetheless, directly from the porch to the fire it goes.


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## woodsmaster (Jun 7, 2012)

They should go away when the wood is dry.


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## fossil (Jun 7, 2012)

woodsmaster said:


> They should go away when the wood is dry.


 
One would think so, and it probably is true for lots of bugs...I know it's the case with Carpenter Ants...but whatever these little guys that like to live in my Juniper are just seem to thrive as the wood seasons.  I've seen them still thoroughly active in Juniper splits & bucked smaller branches 3 years after being stacked in an exposed south-facing sunny location.  These bugs are still boring into and living in the wood long after the wood is ready for the stove.  Dunno what they are...maybe time I did some Googling. 

The OP's wood is a totally different species, and he's in a different area/climate, so obviously we're not talking about the same little borer.  In any case, it doesn't seem to me that any action is required.  Rick


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## My Oslo heats my home (Jun 7, 2012)

I have a simular boring type bug in my black cherry here too. It leaves the small powdery piles on the downside/underside only. I have learned to let the bugs run their course, knowing they are only in one type of wood. I also leave the wood with bugs out in the stacks in winter, not on the porch with the clean wood. When I do grab a couple splits for burning they go right into the firebox.


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## fishingpol (Jun 7, 2012)

Back in my younger days while living at home, I cut some cherry and sealed the ends to put aside for carving projects in the basement.  A few weeks later the powder post beetles hatched out and were everywhere in the basement.  All I could hear was a "plink, plink, plink" as they would fly into the overhead lights for days.   Lesson learned to leave it outside for a while.  My dad was not too happy about it at the time either.


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## Gark (Jun 7, 2012)

Like blujacket said, those hungry buggers chew the heck out of any mullberry we get in these parts. The clicking noises they make while chomping the wood is weird for darn sure. I figure they're making fire channels through the wood for more efficient combustion.


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## bogydave (Jun 7, 2012)

I had that (smaller dust piles though) in some spruce last summer.
I though carpenter ants but never  saw any.
It was pretty dry but I never saw any bugs. The next year in the wood shed no new dust, so they didn't winter over.
Could've been spruce bark beetles I guess. 

Hope they don't eat much of your wood.


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## Locust Post (Jun 7, 2012)

Never had much trouble with borers here until 3 years ago when I got a good mess of hickory. They did not mess with any other wood except a little bit of elm but very little there. All the locust I cut here is black locust and have never had any proble there nor do I ever see anything after our cherry and usually have a good bit of that.


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## Oregon Bigfoot (Jun 8, 2012)

bogydave said:


> I had that (smaller dust piles though) in some spruce last summer.
> I though carpenter ants but never saw any.
> It was pretty dry but I never saw any bugs. The next year in the wood shed no new dust, so they didn't winter over.
> Could've been spruce bark beetles I guess.
> ...


 
Spruce is evil wood.  The little bit of blue spruce I got this year was horrible to split by hand for a low btu wood, and not worth it to me.  I have one piece I cannot split.  I've beat and beat on that dude, on both ends, and it will not bust  I set it aside for campfire wood.  I would rather let the bugs chew it up, spit it out, and go away.  How's the Alaska spruce to split and burn?

I do notice small boring holes and piles in my Douglas Fir and Oregon Oak wood, but they aren't at all as big of dust piles as the OP.


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## Mr A (Jun 8, 2012)

Just when they thought they were comfortable, their ass gets burned!


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## DanCorcoran (Jun 8, 2012)

Our neighbors in Colorado thought my wife was crazy when she told them she could hear the Ips beetles (pine bark beetles) chewing on the pinon trees as she walked in the woods.  It was amazingly loud, though, on a still day.


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## Jags (Jun 8, 2012)

Rick - in your softwoods such as the pinon and other pines, you are probably dealing with the powder post beetles.  Tiny holes with small piles of very fine dust below them.  On the Locust, it will probably be the locust borer.  Quite a bit larger and produces a larger pile of dust, as well.  For those with either type, don't sweat it.  They aren't gonna destroy your stove chow.  Just keep the wood away from your dwelling unless it is cold or frozen.


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## Wood Duck (Jun 8, 2012)

Oregon Bigfoot said:


> Spruce is evil wood. The little bit of blue spruce I got this year was horrible to split by hand for a low btu wood, and not worth it to me. I have one piece I cannot split. I've beat and beat on that dude, on both ends, and it will not bust I set it aside for campfire wood. I would rather let the bugs chew it up, spit it out, and go away. How's the Alaska spruce to split and burn?
> 
> I do notice small boring holes and piles in my Douglas Fir and Oregon Oak wood, but they aren't at all as big of dust piles as the OP.


 
I scrounged some spruce this spring. Here in central PA there are no native spruce, only planted trees, and most of the spruce are yard trees that have branches along most of the trunk. I scrounged some 8 or 10 inch diameter Colorado Blue Spruces that had tons of branches before they were felled, and that stuff was extremely tough to split. Elm is a dream compared to knotty spruce. On the other hand I also scrounged some big rounds from a Norway Spruce that seems to have had no limbs on the lower portion of the trunk. That wood split like a dream. I made a bunch of it into kindling because it split with a tap from the Fiskar's. So my experience is that spruce with limbs is tough to split, without limbs it is easy. I guess the same goes for almost all wood, but for spruce the difference seems particularly great because spruce get so many limbs in close proximity to eachother.

As I recall Alaskan Spruce is easy to split. Most of the Alaskan spruce I split back in the day was probably White Spruce and most was from trees grown in the forest with few or no branches along most of the trunk.


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## tfdchief (Jun 9, 2012)

They always infest hickory and honey locust here.  Nothing else.  Here is what gets in mine. The red headed ash borer.


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## fishingpol (Jun 9, 2012)

We have those same beetles here too Steve.  Last wood delivery a few weeks back was rampant with them.


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## blujacket (Jun 10, 2012)




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## blujacket (Jun 10, 2012)

Locust Borer


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## NextEndeavor (Jun 10, 2012)

Thanks for the replies.  Appears I'm not alone with these little chompers.  The adult red headed borers pictured above where all over the wood several weeks ago.  Guess they were having a free for all making babies!  The saw dust piles are quite a lot taller now than when I took the pictures last week.  It's been so extremely dry and windy around here that all the wood is seasoning quite well.  If they can't live in dry wood, they should be gone before fall.  The cracks in my yard are so wide you don't dare drop a piece of firewood on the ground cause you may never see it again .......  we need rain!  Seriously, we must be near a drought considering the time of year.


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## osagebow (Jun 11, 2012)

I have locust borers similar to tdfchief's pic but brighter colored, and some round glossy beetle maturing in my oak stacks that looks just like a black widow when it runs across your hand lol..


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## red oak (Jun 11, 2012)

I know that I get the same type of dust in oak and maple here in Va.  I've never seen the bugs themselves but the dust and holes look similar.  The bugs do seem to leave when the wood gets dry, but the pieces that have been chewed up pretty good I leave outside just to be safe.  It all winds up in the stove though for sure.  If I threw every piece that had any bugs on it into the fire pit I'd have very little left.


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