For the first time I've notice what I think are PPB in my slabs that are waiting to get into the kiln. They are poplar and river birch stack on top of each other. After I kiln dried them and heat treat them I know it will kill the PPB but what are the chances of infecting my other slabs that already been dried and waiting to sale?
I'm sure others have have this to worry about, so what do you do? I don't see any that might be in my dry slabs now.
Spray your slabs with disodium octaborate tetrahydrate green off the mill. Make sure that any bark gets coated good with spray. A bit of piece of mind, but aggravating to have to do it. You could also sequester the dried slabs in a different place that is enclosed and sealed off from the elements, but that takes more room or another building :).
This are more likely ambrosia bettles. They prefer wetter wood and hatch within weeks versus lower MC and hatching pin a year. PPB like rough wood with pores, not smoother wood.
These can spread easily with three crops a year. They love woody debris on the ground.
Quote from: GeneWengert-WoodDoc on June 21, 2017, 11:17:26 AM
This are more likely ambrosia bettles. They prefer wetter wood and hatch within weeks versus lower MC and hatching pin a year. PPB like rough wood with pores, not smoother wood.
These can spread easily with three crops a year. They love woody debris on the ground.
Yep, DanG ambrosia beetles give me hell. They get into my oak logs like overnight. >:( How can one stop that? I keep my logs stacked off the ground.
Quote from: WDH on June 21, 2017, 07:22:59 AM
Spray your slabs with disodium octaborate tetrahydrate green off the mill. Make sure that any bark gets coated good with spray. A bit of piece of mind, but aggravating to have to do it. You could also sequester the dried slabs in a different place that is enclosed and sealed off from the elements, but that takes more room or another building :).
Is this the stuff?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Timbor-Insecticide-Termiticide-Fungicide-25-Lbs-Termites-Beetles-Carpenter-Ants-/141026954196?hash=item20d5dc8bd4:g:nYoAAOSw4CFYvWP-
Yes. Timbor is a commercial blend of the borate salts that WDH is talking about. You can also mix your own from farm supply chemicals.
I noticed the timbor in that ad is $4/lb, the last Solubor I bought was exactly half that price and I was a little upset, it had just about doubled. They are chemically identical.
Last Solubor that I bought was $1.60 per pound. Timbor is priced way up there. Technically, Solubor, while exactly identical to Timbor, same compound and same concentration, is labeled for use in liquid fertilizer as a source for the micro-nutrient boron. Timbor is labeled as an insecticide. Technically, you are not supposed to use a chemical in a different way than specified on the label per the EPA :) :) :) :).
Will the Solubor take care of the Ambrosia beetles also? I've looked on internet and see where you can but it fairly cheap. If I got some would it be any help spraying and dry slabs under the shed that I have for sale. I don't want to sell someone an infected slab and way too much trouble to reheat them again.
It will prevent ambrosia beetles from infesting your logs, but you have to spray the logs before sawing the slabs. Too impractical for me, so I just live with some ambrosia beetle holes. The key thing to prevent ambrosia beetles is to saw the logs immediately after felling, then spray the lumber with disodium octaborate tetrahydrate before stickering the lumber. As to the dry slabs, spraying them now prevent any fresh infestations from PPB's, but if the PPB's are already in there, it won't help that.
Ambrosia beetles feed on a fungus the adults inoculate the hole with. They burrow in wet wood but really feed on the fungus, the hole is black. I don't really worry too much about them, when the wood is dry their food source dies.
Anobiids feed on the wood, preferably wet, but they can reinfest dry wood. The hole is wood colored. I borate more for those types of insects.
This is a good article;
http://articles.extension.org/pages/70170/beetles-order-coleoptera
Quote from: Don P on June 22, 2017, 09:52:41 PM
Ambrosia beetles feed on a fungus the adults inoculate the hole with. They burrow in wet wood but really feed on the fungus, the hole is black. I don't really worry too much about them, when the wood is dry their food source dies.
Anobiids feed on the wood, preferably wet, but they can reinfest dry wood. The hole is wood colored. I borate more for those types of insects.
This is a good article;
http://articles.extension.org/pages/70170/beetles-order-coleoptera
Those ambrosia beetles holes do look real nice when one finishes out a board. This is some wainscoting in water oak I did.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38788/IMG_0984.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1471640073)
One can see the black holes. :D
Quote from: fishfighter on June 21, 2017, 11:48:55 AM
Quote from: GeneWengert-WoodDoc on June 21, 2017, 11:17:26 AM
This are more likely ambrosia bettles. They prefer wetter wood and hatch within weeks versus lower MC and hatching pin a year. PPB like rough wood with pores, not smoother wood.
These can spread easily with three crops a year. They love woody debris on the ground.
Yep, DanG ambrosia beetles give me hell. They get into my oak logs like overnight. >:( How can one stop that? I keep my logs stacked off the ground.
If possible, buy fresh cut logs, mill them quickly, and segregate the wet sawn wood from the kiln dried. Scrape up the log yard down to dirt routinely and burn the debris.
If I see logs with fresh insect activity, I mill them immediately and slab heavy, which also goes into the burn pit.
I have a buddy who stores his logs in a pond if he won't mill them for awhile. I tried it for myself with a few cherry logs a couple years ago. I saw no degrade or insects at all, if anything they had a deeper reddish color than I was used to seeing, and made beautiful wood. I fished the floating logs out with a tractor grapple when the wind blew them to the bank. I still have one nice log in the pond, it sank and has become a fish attractor. Oh well.