I think I have a big problem?

[Dana Stanley]

So I got all the free logs. Started cleaning up around and getting the mill ready, cut some pine ,maple and apple. I have been hearing a constant creaking sound in the log pile, Then found the guy in the photo, in fact I am infested with them! What to do? What are they. They are boring big holes in the logs. It's mostly pine.

[btulloh]

Pine borers. Nothing you can do about them except saw thelogs asap. Figure out what you can use holy lumber for. 

On a brighter note, the blade tends to cut real good from the extra lubrication they provide. 

Sorry to hear your logs turned out to have borers. I reckon we've all been through that once. 

[Dana Stanley]

This is an article I found, it doesn't say how deep they bore, just that they like it under the bark, but I see the holes in the sapwood! Should I strip the bark off of them all?  Most of it is pine. The blue I had the Whit is the stuff I just got. It is in all of it. Am I supposed to report it to someone? Will they continue to bore in boards and beams etc.?

 

The Flat Headed borer, Buprestis lineate, (Family Buprestidae) is common in the pines in the east and south, including log houses! In early summer through fall, young larvae are active in the pine bark, mining the juicy inner bark which is carrying nutrients down to the roots. They grow rather large—we've seen them as large as a pinky finger (3-3.25 inches)
When mature, they have transformed into metallic colored beetles, usually boat shaped and flat and varying in size. The mature beetles exit the bark through an oval hole and seek a new location on the tree or another tree. It is the larval stage that can kill the tree by destroying the nutrient-piping infrastructure situated just under the bark.

[charles mann]

I just had a 60" pecan slabbed. I found the exact same borer, along with grubs and they bored through 5"+ of sap wood, and into the heart wood. Works good for my use, but probably not good for lumber. 

[richhiway]

They start off small and grow as they go. They will bore all through the pine. It may help to take off the bark but it is best to mill them. Some like the holey wood and let them do there thing,then saw. They are harmless and very common.

[Dana Stanley]

Most of it if for sheds, and a small 12x16 Hay barn. If they won't eat the sheds and barn, a few holes isn't the end of the world! It is discouraging though. I spent 50 hours getting all those logs.

[Bruno of NH]

When I pull the bark they don't like it as much and tend to leave 

[Bruno of NH]

They also like summer cut logs better .

[Dana Stanley]

One thing for sure, where ever they reside, the bark is very loose!

[Davek603]

That's why mills keep the piles wet. Best thing you can do is start sawing. They will go deep if you wait, if you saw them soon enough the damage will be minor.  The plus side is you will have happy birds around your mill every day when your done!

[Magicman]

Yup, they are just making a living doing what they do.  I seldom see them below ~2-3" deep so just saw down until they are not there.  They also make a nice mid-morning snack.


 
Here is a picture that Luke took!!  

[WV Sawmiller]

   I had a customer call me to come cut a stack of pine logs he had down for 18 months. I knew there was something wrong when i drove up and found good access to the site, level ground and under a shade tree - I never get to work in conditions like that! We could hear them chewing as soon as we set up. The first log had a 3/8" diameter hole about every 2'  with a half a worm on each side so we took a log off the top of the pile and sawed it with the same results. He wanted it for framing and it was not strong enough for that so we called the job and I went home.

   I'd saw it as soon as possible as that is the only way to salvage it I know of. I have heard if you peel the logs they won't get in them but I have not tried it. You may advertise it and jack the price up and be able to sell it as specialty wood. Some people like the look for interior paneling and to the right customer it will actually command a higher price - strange but true.

   I think it actually works okay for shed or barn sheeting if it does not have to be totally intact.

    On the Mountain Man TV series, Eustace Conway down near Hickory NC made his into hand-made, rustic , wormy farm tables and sells them for about $4,000 each. I am not sure that will work for the rest of us. : 

   If you wait much longer you may just be able to open a fish bait shop and market the grubs for bait. I can see it now - "Ol Greenhorn's fish bait and sushi bar". Good luck.

[Southside]

Yes you will have some jacket lumber with holes in it, BUT if that is blue pine then market that as premium,rare, special, character lumber and laugh all the way to the bank. Seriously, folks love that stuff.

[Stephen1]

You are ussually good for 1 season of pine bore, next year they just get deeper.more waste wood.v If you peel the logs it will slow them down. They will not be 2 deep if they have just been down this season. Pine bore smell the fresh fallen or fresh sawn pine and ussually show up when were sawing. Big ugly prehistoric looking bugs with big pinchers.. Just make deeper 1st cuts. Saves a lot of sawing. 

[WDH]

I do what Southside says.  Makes great rustic paneling and farm tables and mantle beams.  I do not even try to cut it into framing lumber.  My best selling wood .  It is all about timing.  Sometimes I create conditions to actually make it happen so that I can get that rustic lumber with the holes in them.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=85242.40

Here is a rustic barn door made from the results of all this beetle chaos. 



 

[Old Greenhorn]

If you wait much longer you may just be able to open a fish bait shop and market the grubs for bait. I can see it now - "Ol Greenhorn's fish bait and sushi bar". Good luck.

HEY! How did I get dragged into this? :D I hate sushi! Besides when you say 'fish bait and sushi', it is redundant, they are both the same.
As for Eustace, my wife watches that show, and I have a cousin that used to work for him (never appeared on the show, there is a lot of other stuff going on there the TV never tells you about)  and I don't care for it. When I go up to bed and she has that on and I watch him fumbling trying to jury rig something that is about 2 seconds from killing him or the people working with him, I have to turn away. I have another name for him, but I am a nice guy, so I won't share it here. ;D
But back to the subject at hand, I have a bunch of pine logs laying about also and I should get to milling them up. Some was just cut last week or two. Others are probably long gone, but we will see when we open them.

[thecfarm]

Them things sure can chew a hole. When my Father and me was cutting pine here, they would go after the limb wood. We sold the logs, so they never got to chew on them. We could hear them things making a hole. If a limb was up in the air, we could see the sawdust coming out of the hole too.

[Nebraska]

If the pine is too far gone for dimensional lumber, make 1x sheeting boards you will need them  too.  I've been sawing up the last of some pine cut last year most of it is still pretty good,  surprisingly so...most of the stained questionable stuff ends up on the slab pile. Inside is still in good shape. (Likely only because we are about 12 inches behind in rainfall... too dry for bugs and tougher for fungus too.). I say give it a whirl, make pine stickers, some will still be good some  maybe not.

[mike_belben]

I dont fool with pine but we get them in red maple and it makes a pretty floor, especially wormy and spalted.  Theyre great for loosening tough bark if you want natural posts with character.  If bark doesnt pop off in whole loose chunks i roll the log back in the dirt for them to keep working.  


Theyll eat the cambium out of oaks and loosen the bark too but not as bad as maple given the same time frame.  I think theyre after sugar/carbs like so many other insects.  Debarking and setting up off the ground early on just about halts them in hardwoods in my experience. 

[Woodpecker52]

Rule of Thumb in summer pine lasts at most 2 weeks here before it is too late. All I have found is blue stain turns to black stain and fungus is fungus and never good in the home, Pig pen may be a different story. I have cut a lot that ended up on the fire pile from borers and termites.  Hard also to salvage pine beetle killed timber most not worth the trouble unless a lot of heart to them. 

[Don P]

Yup saw it fast and get it drying, it's ok for sheathing but not structural.
I like deep fried sushi.

[kelLOGg]

Turn your chickens (and Magicman ;D) loose on them. They love them.
I used such boards for trailer siding.

[farmfromkansas]

Would a little Tempo not take care of the borers if you sprayed the logs as soon as they hit the ground?  Seems to work on ash.

[Dana Stanley]

Yup, they are just making a living doing what they do.  I seldom see them below ~2-3" deep so just saw down until they are not there.  They also make a nice mid-morning snack.


Here is a picture that Luke took!!  

I did think when I saw them, if a feller was starving, these would fill him up!

[Dana Stanley]

Would a little Tempo not take care of the borers if you sprayed the logs as soon as they hit the ground?  Seems to work on ash.

Tempo?