bugs boring into wood

[banshee67]

so i sold this guy 3 cords of wood, i was over his house today and he was showing me some wood that was being drilled into by bugs
the first cord came from a couple trees i removed from some ladies house and was a mix of ash and some mystery wood (that caused a huge debate in one of my threads and was never settled) - these seem to be the pieces in question, the other 2 cords came from a totally different location, (about 40 miles away from the other trees) and was all locust and cherry, which are totally free of boring holes. although all 3 cords are all just heaped up in one big pile, it doesnt seem like the bugs are going after the locust or cherry, or the maple, they are going after the poplar, ash and this mystery wood i snapped a few pictures of, we tried to split a few pieces open to find the bugs but we couldnt find any, there are fresh little piles of sawdust all over. he said he would knock a peice off before bed, wake up in the morning and itll have fresh holes and sawdust piles on it. he wants to fumigate the whole pile with something so i was looking for some info from you guys. i am bringin him one more cord and hes paying for me to stack all 4 so i was going to separate out the pieces that have been bored into so he can burn them first, but still it would be horrible if all the wood gets infected by winter. any ideas??
on the bright side, itll season faster, right?

- by the way these pics are the mystery wood in question in one of my threads, the bark looks like poplar, but its WAY too heavy and dense to be poplar, some said a type of hickory maybe, im not sure, ive never seen any hickory except the shagbark and it looks nothing like that. the wood was almost red/purplish in the middle heartwood when it was fresh split a couple months ago

 

[cat10ken]

It looks to me like it is smooth bark hickory, also called bitternut hickory.
The bug that eats hickory is called a long horned Asian beetle. I don't think it will invade any of the other wood in your pile.
These beetles are pretty wicked looking bugs when they congregate on your basement windows in the winter after crawling out of your firewood. I haven't known them to do any damage to internal stuctures but it is possible if you have any hickory lumber in your building.
Just Google Long-Horned Asian beetles and see what they look like.
Ken

 

[jimdad07]

- by the way these pics are the mystery wood in question in one of my threads, the bark looks like poplar, but its WAY too heavy and dense to be poplar, some said a type of hickory maybe, im not sure, ive never seen any hickory except the shagbark and it looks nothing like that. the wood was almost red/purplish in the middle heartwood when it was fresh split a couple months ago

That mystery wood looks like bitternut hickory. The stuff burns great, is also good for woodworking, but not quite as good as shag bark hickory. Might sound strange, but if you put fresh garlic in a food processor and puree it, you can mix it with cooking oil and spray it on and around your firewood. We use that mix for our garden, should work for his wood pile. Can also try sprinkling ashes on and around the pile. Works for bores and other soft bodied critters. Good luck.

 

[foursaps]

the asion long horned is a nasty bug, currently trying to invade part of mass, and i am dreading the day it comes into my land. it attacks all hardwoods, and that is all we have. if you have them congregating in your basement, you have much bigger problems in the woods....

are there any marks on the bark? the asian long horn leaves a hole about the size of your finger nails, with the bark chewed around it in a 2 inch circe or so...

 

[banshee67]

so, the only damn hickory tree ive ever cut, and i end up some damn asian horned Beatles? some luck..
ill tell him to try the garlic spray before he goes crazy with some sort of chemical bomb or something. and ill separate out all the hickory off in its own stack away from the rest of the good wood
he said he could hear them inside the pile at night when he was standing next to it, but we couldnt find one of them digging through some of it and splitting open a few bored out pieces

 

[Hammer289]

sorry probably a dumb question but is that like some sort of elm? cuz ive cut up alot and the color looks a little bit the same as what ive seen

 

[Circle B MN]

There is more than one bug that bores wood. It would certainly be helpful if you were to find an example of the offending critter. If you find a shiny black beetle about an inch or so long with long antenna, and clearly defined white spots, you are most certainly :censored: Do some google reading on Asian Long Horned Beetle, and check out the before and after photos of the town in MA that had the ALB show up. Not a good thing at all.

On another note, the tree you cut and split may not have been the host, rather the bug is already in the area and your freshly cut firewood looked appetizing upon arrival.

 

[tomtrees58]

 

[vincem77]

On another note, the tree you cut and split may not have been the host, rather the bug is already in the area and your freshly cut firewood looked appetizing upon arrival.

This definitely happens in my wood pile. I will notice some piles of sawdust on clean wood that I just recently split that had no bugs.

How is the 3 cord stacked for that customer? I find that if my wood is packed in tight with little airflow the bugs go to town. If i seperate out all the stacks and leave good airflow they have trouble finding wet wood.

 

[banshee67]

This definitely happens in my wood pile. I will notice some piles of sawdust on clean wood that I just recently split that had no bugs.

How is the 3 cord stacked for that customer? I find that if my wood is packed in tight with little airflow the bugs go to town. If i seperate out all the stacks and leave good airflow they have trouble finding wet wood.

right now its just in one big pile, when i bring him the 4th cord he is gona pay me to stack all 4, then i will really go through the pile good, we tried hard to find a bug yesterday, splitting pieces multiple times with holes, couldnt find any, anywhere, i know hes on the lookout for one so we can see what kind of bug it is

i didnt want to imply to him that they might have come from his property, but he also has a stand of black locust behind his house that are mysteriously ALL dying. i dont see any boring in them though, then he has some silver maples and momossas that are all dying off , right in the same area in his back yard.
this wood i brought him was clean as can be, when i split it, i wouldnt keep splitting and loading wood that was full of bugs or holes, but i cant place the blame on him cause you never know..
i just hope it doesnt turn into something bigger than 1/2 cord of wood with holes in it

 

[foursaps]

this is a tree that is hosting the ALB eggs, you can definately see the bore holes, there is no mistaking them on any tree. if ANY of the trees on his property look like this, you have a big problem. if not, it is most likely another bug eating the wood. also, the long horns usually bore into live, standing trees, not cut split ones.

 

[Curlycherry1]

FWIW Ash and Hickory are THE two best woods for attracting boring critters. The bugs really love those two species for some reason. Not to worry though because many bugs that eat ash and hickory will not dig into other nearby woods. Also, kiln dried lumber, ie stuff that houses are made out of rarely if ever get eaten by bugs. Bugs need 15% moisture and above to survive.

 

[wvlogger]

i have noticed this in apple to. have yall?

 

[chris50ae]

my bet is carpenter bees, If "New Jermany" means New Jersey than your are in the same area as me and they are all over my woodpile

 

[banshee67]

little update here:

this guy leaves me a message this afternoon..

i was there droppin off a cord 10-12+ days ago when he brought the problem to my attention, for all we know the bugs came from his property.. anyway, i tried to be nice anyway, and said that i would remove any infested wood if hed like, there really wasnt much at that point, a little bit of ash and hickory out of the 2 cords that were then in the pile, well he said "no no, you dont have to do that, ill burn it, its no big deal" , so i added the 3rd cord to the pile.
10+ days later(today) he calls now and leaves a message saying "i would like you to come by and remove the infested wood AT THE VERY LEAST"....
to me the addition of the phrase "at the very least" means he feels that i should do more than just remove the 'infested' . so 10 days ago i could have easily sorted through the 2cords and pin pointed the "infested" pieces of ash and hickory and taken them away, even if they were his bugs, i offered , but he declined and had me pile the other cord on top of the other 2 , so now its a huge pile of 3 cords, and the bugs have probably moved to more wood in the past almost 2 weeks..i told him id take it then, declined, he said it was no big deal and he would fumigate the pile and kill em....guess he changed his mind and now he thinks i should come by and 'REMOVE all the infested wood, AT THE VERY LEAST'.. im guessing the very least means he wants some money back or something?
what would you guys do in this situation?
i offered to take the tiny bit of infested wood already, he said no. whos to say they are even my bugs, i delivered wood to many other customers from the same hickory and ash property i cleared out. no one else had any complaints..
i would have had no problem taking the bit of infested wood almost 2 weeks ago, but he said no, and instructed to drop the other cord off in the same pile, i did as i was asked, and now it looks like im going to pay for it.
what would you guys do?

 

[Curlycherry1]

Take all the wood back and don't sell him any more wood, ever. This could turn very ugly and soon he could be claiming your wood had bugs that got into his house and he wants you to cover that too.

Time to move on, suck it up and be done with him. One or two bugs could have come from his property, but if you have 10 or more then it was infested when you delivered. Those bugs spent a lot of time as little tiny critters before they got big enough to notice. My bet is they have been there a long time.

Also there is no fumigant that I am aware of that will reliably kill bugs inside the wood. Go to any woodworking forum and ask and you will see. Kiln drying is the only way to kill the buggers.

 

[banshee67]

the thing that bothers me, the wood in question has been sitting in his lawn in a pile for 3 MONTHS+
hes had every opportunity for me to take it, i would have taken it all the last time i was there and saved myself the 30+ mile roundtrip, i offered to, he declined, now has changed his mind 2 weeks later, again.
i guess ill give him a call back and see what the hell he has in mind this time..last time i talked he was asking me for more black locust, i think you are right, i should just decline and tell him that i cant bring him anymore wood and get the hell away.

i wish i still had the other customers numbers who got wood from that batch, id love to go checkout their piles to see if they have any "bugs" in it... im sure i would have gotton angry calls when they went to stack it if there was

 

[super3]

my bet is carpenter bees, If "New Jermany" means New Jersey than your are in the same area as me and they are all over my woodpile

Another vote here for Carpenter Bees. Started a hole and looked for a softer spot.

Bitternut Hickory here are bad for the Round Headed Borer. Very small entrance hole in the bark ( less than 1/8" ) and bores into the sap wood.Starts out in the larve stage, very seldom see a bore over 1/8" when split open. Very fine dust piles on the bark side.

Last Hickory I cut they showed up 5 months after it had been split. The website that I looked at and matched the larve stated they can be dormant for up to 10 years before they show there ass.

 

[banshee67]

Another vote here for Carpenter Bees. Started a hole and looked for a softer spot.

Bitternut Hickory here are bad for the Round Headed Borer. Very small entrance hole in the bark ( less than 1/8" ) and bores into the sap wood.Starts out in the larve stage, very seldom see a bore over 1/8" when split open. Very fine dust piles on the bark side.

this sounds like you are describing his problem
they are VERY small entry holes, 1/8" sounds about right, i guess i could measure one, and the fine little dust piles on the bark side, exactly
and yes, new jermany = new jersey

just called the guy , left a message offering to come get the wood tomorrow, we shall see what he says..
i was thinking of giving him un-split rounds, to replace it, if anything. i have a bunch of birch and ash outside right now, ill bring him a bit on the trailer as a nice gesture, not as an admittance of guilt. i dont think i should have to buy my wood back, when the bugs in question are unidentified and we have no idea whos bugs they are anyway
i think 3-4 months after the wood was delivered most people would ignore the phone call..

 

[rmihalek]

I would not risk transporting the infected wood anywhere until the source of the infestation is clearly identified and the organism is identified.

If you bring the pest back to your woodlot, you put the rest of your inventory at risk. Also, depending on the organism, you could be, potentially, spreading some new nasty critter.

The guy sounds like a decent customer, but you have to tell him that you can't take the wood back for fear of spreading the pathogen to other areas.