How do I keep grubs out of firewood?

[City Slicker]

I've noticed over the years that the grubs(some kind of wood borer?) get into the bark on my oak and hickory firewood and make a powdery mess. Any way to keep them away?

 

[timberwolf]

Burn them... That is with the wood.

 

[Coldfront]

I wouldn't worry to much about it bugs don't eat much compared to the saw dust you make cutting a few logs. Like he said ^ burn'em.

 

[cityevader]

Does anybody know where there come from?

Are they merely a larval stage and change into something else, stay grubs forever?

 

[Slvrmple72]

They are the larval stage of several types of wood beetles. The beetles are attracted by the smell of fresh cut/ damaged trees and lay their eggs which hatch into the grubs that begin boring into the wood. They really like punky/soft wood and you will find a large number of them when you are splitting wood. You can share they don't eat much :greenchainsaw:

 

[Mike Van]

Maybe thats why some wood 'pops' more than others? How many b.t.u.s in a nice fat grub?

 

[Madspeed]

DANG bark beetles!!

 

[Madspeed]

Slimy yet satisfying!

 

[jeeptj19992001]

Does anybody know where there come from?

it all depends if you believe in creation or evolutions......

 

[cityevader]

They are the larval stage of several types of wood beetles. The beetles are attracted by the smell of fresh cut/ damaged trees and lay their eggs which hatch into the grubs that begin boring into the wood. They really like punky/soft wood and you will find a large number of them when you are splitting wood. You can share they don't eat much :greenchainsaw:

Just how big are these beetles?!?! I've grubs longer and thicker than my middle finger!!!

 

[turnkey4099]

it all depends if you believe in creation or evolutions......

. And I wouldn't expect to have to explain "where they come from" to any adult.

Hary K

 

[woodguy105]

De bark before you buck and split... Wife gave me a bark spud for xmas one year so I stripped a live oak that i dropped. Wasn't too difficult because there was plenty of moisture ...left a very slippery but clean log.

It's nice handling a bakless log but it's a pain. Old blow down and such peels fairly easily. Strip the log if you want to leave the grubbs in the woods and not bring home.

Still takes work & time.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

Here the beetles seem to prefer the Shargbark Hickory trees and all the holes and sawdust come from the Hickory I have stacked. I have tried spraying on the wood that is going into the long term storage pile in the woodshed - but it doesn't help as they are deep inside the wood.

When I am stacking if I see holes....it goes in the pile closest to the woodburner to get burned soon....even it if hasn't seasoned very long.

 

[LTREES]

Took down a silver maple and it had larva as big as my thumb. We had a larva fight, it got a little slimy.
:spam:

 

[toddstreeservic]

hook em and dunk em in the lake!

 

[Crofter]

I think the quicker you get it split and dried the fewer borers you will have. Once dried to a certain point they are not too interested. A lot of times they are in the tree bark before it is felled. You see log yards with a sprinkler set up spraying constantly and that perhaps drowns them so I guess they dont like totally wet either. I dont store a lot of wood inside so have never seen them crawling out and about and I dont think they would re enter any dry wood of your house, but those carpenter ants are another story! Any sign of them and that wood only goes into the house and directly into the fire.