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I havent seen this before...

Started by YellowHammer, September 12, 2012, 01:49:26 PM

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YellowHammer

I picked up a decent sized log that had already been felled and trimmed so I couldn't get a look at leaves, branches, etc.  I thought it was a gum, but when I bucked the log in half, it stank like crazy, and I couldn't get the smell out of my nose for a couple days.  The log was still pretty green but was white softwood, like a gum.  I've had it laying out in the yard for a couple weeks now, and when I went to look at it today, there were all kinds of bug frass sticking up to an inch out of the end of the log.  I don't think I've seen this kind of piranha style bug attack before. 
My wife thinks it's some kind of "sourwood" and she may be right, because I can't think of anything better to call it, except maybe "skunkwood."
Any ideas of the kind of wood and the kind of bug?
Unless it's a piece of gold, it going into the burn pit pretty quick. 
YH
 

  

 
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

WDH

My first thought is that it might be a buckeye.  Both of these are know in Northern Alabama, but they are not common everyday trees that you see on every street corner, wide place in the road, or bottom or cove.  That may be why that you have not seen it before.  The bark initially points to buckeye.  Not sure about the stink.  Maybe there are others here that have experience with the olfactory properties of buckeye  :).

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=140

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=332
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

SwampDonkey

Even maple will smell like barn yard manure after laying around awhile. ;D Of course I'm not making a guess. But, when wood begins to ferment a little in the heat no telling what the sniffer will pick up. ;)

Could be ambrosia/engravers or buprestidae (metallic wood borer) on and on. ;D The latter makes a pencil sized hole. The grub is flat headed, like a kernel of corn with a tail.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

YellowHammer

Well, a little more to add to the mystery... I was showing it to a guy this afternoon and he leaned forward to look at the bark then jumped back and said "you can hear them eating!." Sure enough, it sounded like a bowl of rice crispies crackling and popping just under the bark.  I'm now very curious, so I guess I will be doing some dissecting and exploratory surgery on these logs this weekend.  I'll take some pictures and maybe try to get some audio of the little guys chewing. 
YH
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Texas Ranger

Flat head or round head borers have made a home.  Call it a fish bait log and you are in business.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

WDH

Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Okrafarmer

Doesn't look like sourwood. I would not call the natural smell of sourwood a bad smell, it just smells like sour apples or something.

Might possibly be a Tupelo (more than one species out there). The heartwood does not look very pronounced and it is a quite soft wood with medium gray bark. I have milled some, though, and I wouldn;'t have thought it would stink and attract the bugs so quickly, though I could be wrong.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

WDH

Definitely not sourwood.  How can a buckeye be a sourwood?  :D :D.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Okrafarmer

Quote from: WDH on September 12, 2012, 10:43:09 PM
Definitely not sourwood.  How can a buckeye be a sourwood?  :D :D.

:-X I thought you said you thought it MIGHT be buckeye  ??? Not that it was buckeye.  :-\
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

SwampDonkey

Quote from: WDH on September 12, 2012, 10:43:09 PM
Definitely not sourwood.  How can a buckeye be a sourwood?  :D :D.

When it starts fermenting. ;D :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

WDH

Yes, I have cast myself into dangerous waters  :D.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Dodgy Loner

My best guess is blackgum (aka black tupelo or Nyssa sylvatica for the scientifically-inclined). I see too many ridges and furrows and not enough wide, flat scales on the bark to be buckeye. Plus, since you're in Alabama, the odds favor my guess ;D
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

WDH

Dodgy,

You are wading in the kiddie pool and I am wallowing on the deep end  :D. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

YellowHammer

I found two different kinds of bugs in the skunk wood this morning, the first was this big grub just under the bark, happily munching away.  I've seen them lots of times before but don't know what they are called.



These grubs were much too big to be drilling the pencil lead sized holes I was seeing in the wood, so started looking closer and found these tiny beetles were everywhere, some 1/8 inch long, some much smaller.  These seemed to be the exact same size as the holes, so I assume they are the ones doing the drilling. The picture is grainy because the beetles are so small I had to zoom in real close.



Does anybody recognize them?  I sprayed with a pyrethrin and they died pretty quick.  I wanted to see if it was effective against them.  Didn't really matter, because what the insecticide didn't kill, the bonfire did. 8)

Anybody know what these little beetles are?

YH
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

WDH

The usual culprits are ambrosia beetles.  Google them.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Okrafarmer

They're pretty active in my sweetgum cant that's sitting on the mill waiting for the mill to continue being fixed. . . .

Anybody have an idea what I could spray or soak the cant with (and boards) to kill the beetles and other borers?
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

SwampDonkey

The big one is a flat headed borer like the Buprestids. But there are other species. Sawyers beetles I find in softwoods and are round headed. The tiny one resembles an ambrosia, they will help make a nice stain in that wood. ;D

This is an ambrosia. They have a clubbed antenna (last segment on the tip).



And engravers are mostly just under the bark.

The hard crunching is from that bigger grub.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Okrafarmer on September 16, 2012, 12:12:00 AM
They're pretty active in my sweetgum cant that's sitting on the mill waiting for the mill to continue being fixed. . . .

Anybody have an idea what I could spray or soak the cant with (and boards) to kill the beetles and other borers?

A box of borax from the wife's laundry mixed in 4-5 gallons of hot water and sprayed on would be a home remedy. Has to me mixed good so it can flow through the sprayer and not be a sludge. It'll kill anything including the vegetation it will likely land on. ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Phorester


Back to the smell............

A species of elm?

WDH

Mighty scaly to be blackgum  :).  Not ring porous enough to be elm  :).  Hmmmmm
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

YellowHammer

I was reading about the ambrosia beetle and how it is attracted to ethyl alchohol baited traps.  It's interesting that I've never had the beetles before and they suddenly appear the same time I got these logs.  Also that these logs were the stinkiest I've ever smelled.  My chainsaw still reeks of the odor.  Makes me wonder if the tree did ferment and develop alcohols that attracted the beetles.  Seems far fetched but this whole thing has been unusual.

YH
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Okrafarmer

They are quite often associated with maple trees. Maybe maple sap ferments more than most-- perhaps due to high sugar content???  ???
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

Cypressstump

Although I do not know the scientific name for it, it sure looks what is commonly referred to down here as Pignut or Water Pecan. They do stink when cut as well. They have leaves and bark like pecan, but the little pecans are more rounded and flatter than the typical pecans we eat.
Stump

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WDH

Carya aquatica.   But, it seems a little off-site for Yellowhammers whereabouts.  Here, it is found in the river bottom swamps.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

YellowHammer

Is a pignut pecan as hard as a regular pecan or hickory?  This tree was relatively soft, kind of cut like a poplar when I bucked it with my chainsaw.  But it was on the edge of a low spot, so I guess it could be called kind of swampy dirt.  It still amazes me, I can cruise the woods and still see trees I don't recognize, this one especially is confusing because I never got to see anything but the bare log. 
YH
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

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