does tim-bor or boracare kill the larvae, or only the adults?
Stoopid powderpost beetles drive me crazy. I hates them.
The borate salts keep the adults from laying eggs on the lumber and the hatching larvae from boring into the wood. It is only a surface treatment, so if already infested, the borate salt will not kill the larvae inside the wood. However, it will prevent any emerging adults from laying new eggs. I guess that is better than nothing.
I just sprayed some oak with a borate salt and it is a pain in the DanG. I assume that you have to spray all four sides of the boards (faces and edges), and it is time consuming. I mix 1 pound per gallon of hot water to aid dissolving of the borate. My brother is a AG chemical rep and he told me to use Beau-Ron. It is used to mix with liquid fertilizer applications to add the trace element boron to the fertilizer. As such, it is much cheaper than the commercial formulations targeted for pesticide application. He said that it was basically the same stuff, just labeled for farm use rather than extermination.
In any case, I hate stoopid powderpost beetles and the process to spray for them :).
www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/SPEC/LABELS/timborlabel.pdf
The label dosenot spasify
from what I saw, the salts do penetrate through the wood:
http://www.borax.com/wood/pdfs/BoronMobility.pdf
Not to the extent that it will kill pre-treatment infestation. Also, since the boron is water soluable, it will wash off, so the wood has to be protected from rain.
http://environmentsensitive.com/effectiveusesofborate.htm
I found this too.
Maybe some high pressure and Borax/water mixture forced into them holes. I would think it would get in if it wasn't done with a low pressure back pack sprayer. But fill the reserviour up in a pressure washer with some concentrate. Hose the suckers!
I don't get them up here, we will only see bugs when the wood is still logs outside. Saw it and borers may still be exiting and leave sawdust as they emerge. I see ambrosia holes, but again from being outside in log form in the elements too long before sawing. Once they come out they go find some new home. Only wood I seen ambrosia was butternut and pine. Also had sawyer in the pine sapwood.
will putting a board under vacuum bust the eggs and kill the buggers?
I've seen lots of crispy ants and other little buggers come out of my vacuum kilns.
did the heat or the vacuum kill them?
I think they would look like the space man who gets a hole in his space suit. The vacuum would get them before the heat.
Quote from: Dan_Shade on January 16, 2011, 06:35:43 PM
does tim-bor or boracare kill the larvae, or only the adults?
I used the Tim-bor on a bunch of Soft Maple last year. Hosed it down twice with a 12volt atv sprayer.
No signs of any recurring pp-beetles at all.
Ed
Lots of good info here.
Ironwood
It's not the larvae or adults that is the primary concern. It is the eggs. They will travel along with a fine piece of furniture to a big expensive house and then come out years from now to infest everything in sight. The only remedy is to not allow the eggs to be laid, or to heat treat the wood.