Carpenter bees and other bugs in wood
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How do you keep carpenter bees and other bugs from destroying raw logs?
i have some local Rio Grande ash, hackberry, mesquite, and acacia logs under a shed to dry. These are all salvaged from urban tree removal and badly executed trimming hack jobs. (I love the kinds of wood we have here and I hate seeing it wasted and trees treated like weeds.)
The other day I took out a short section of ash to split for a project and got a nice surprise. A whole family of carpenter bees had made it their winter resort! Well half the log was Swiss cheese so I went to work on the other half. It looked solid but as I went to work on it, the finest powdery sawdust came out. Some kind bug had bored holes all through and filled in their holes with this dust.
Those of you who dry and process your own wood, how do you keep the bugs from destroying this stuff?
I will be making ash chopsticks in the future, btw.
- Debra J
The United States Depertment of Agriculture considers heating the core of the wood ro 60°C (140°F) for one hour sufficient to kill all wood boring pests.
https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/disturbance/invasive_species/firewood_treatment/
It is a standard treatment for palette wood in the shipping industry. Pallets stamped HT ( heat treated) or KD ( Kiln dried) have been subjected to this standard.
The other method is poisoning with Methyl Bromide)
I know people who use solar kilns. An oven will do small pieces. Make sure the core is heated.
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