Sawdust in my wood

[EasyT]

I'm noticing sawdust in my wood. I've detected some insects, but they're quick as greased lightning and hard to identify. This wood is recently cut and stacked and still wet. I've seen this before, but there's more of it now than I've seen in the past. My wood shed is covered on top but with open sides.

How do you get rid of these pests without infecting the wood, or should I not worry about it? Thanks.

 

[sean donato]

Could be any number of bugs. Not much you can do with insecticides that won't affect the wood imo. At least nothing I'd want to burn in my house. You could mix some borax and sugar to see if it kills them off. Works pretty well for ants. The borax is powdered soap.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Do you see very small holes in the wood? Could be powder post beetles. Not a problem for firewood if it doesn't set for years. I had some Silver maple that sat for 3-4 years and they ate it up - lost a lot of weight and heat value.

 

[ericm979]

I'm noticing sawdust in my wood. I've detected some insects, but they're quick as greased lightning and hard to identify. This wood is recently cut and stacked and still wet. I've seen this before, but there's more of it now than I've seen in the past. My wood shed is covered on top but with open sides.

How do you get rid of these pests without infecting the wood, or should I not worry about it? Thanks.

I find that splitting the wood gets rid of most of the bugs. They like wet wood better than dry wood.

 

[Captain Bruce]

There are any number of simple spray solutions. Kill them off, before they nest. Even raw vinegar in a 3 gal. sprayer is lethal to insects.

 

[buzz sawyer]

I find that splitting the wood gets rid of most of the bugs. They like wet wood better than dry wood.

Splitting didn't help in my case, they still ate up the silver maple. Got into some Pin Oak a little but was probably too hard for them.

 

[Pudsy]

I'm noticing sawdust in my wood. I've detected some insects, but they're quick as greased lightning and hard to identify

As a rule (with some exceptions of course), the "insects" that are quick as greased lightning would probably not be the ones causing the sawdust. Most bugs that tunnel into the wood don't need to be fast as an escape mechanisme as they are (somewhat) protected by the wood around them. Very quick critters are more likely to have their natural habitat on the wood, not in it.

Then again, with most insects that would cause sawdust, it would mostly be the larvae that do the wood chewing (sometimes for several years) and the adults (imago) would crawl out of the wood and live on the outside for a few weeks, just to procreate and deposit new eggs. These may be quick on the wing (take of in a panic if any sudden change of light is detected) but I don't know of any that would qualify as particularly fast runners.
Actually, extremely fast runners are more likely to be unwinged insects or the likes of woodlice etc. where there are species with varying defence strategies (hiding in plain sight, clinging onto the surface, dropping/roling away or run like greased lightning). Most will excel at only one of these strategies.

 

[user 158015]

I wouldn't worry about it