Beetles and Bugs

[TexasTimbers]

Is the "Box Elder Bug" a slang term for the Ambrosia Beetle?

[jon12345]

Box elder bugs feed on seed pods of female box elders and ambrosia beetles are wood boring, that feed on fungus they carry with them from tree to tree, spreading the fungus.  I'm sure somelone else will have more on them, I just googled each.

[TexasTimbers]

Guess I was too lazy to do that tonight. Plus I wanted to rouse some forester from his repose and make him type.  :P

[Texas Ranger]

DanG, Kevjay, you spyin on me? :-\

[SwampDonkey]

He often get webworms on them along the river banks.

[TexasTimbers]

One of my etseemed customers, not being cheeky here but serious for once, is a turner of quite renown. Often interviewed in mags, charges and gets the big bucks his his turnings yada yada. Kinda like the Sam Maloof of wood turning.
So anyhow, not long after I posted this question I happend to be on the phone with this elderly gentlman. He is a type that when he speaks it has that air of authority so that if he said Martians just landed on the WHitehouse lawn you would tend tobelieve rather than doubt it.
So he tells me, when we are discussing this stuff "Kevin, without the Ambrosia Beetle their is no red in your Red Box Elder. They are the cause of it not stress."
I had told him, with some authority ( : ) that stress causes the red.
So there ya have it. Whether or not he is right I can't really say. I do know that Martians did land on the Whitehouse lawn back in the Truman years, but ti was a big cover-up and the poor little fellas are still being held captive at Area 51 with Elvis.

[Texas Ranger]

I can tell you with certainty that I have no idea what singular element may or may not cause discoloration.  I can also tell you with certainty that "it depends", many factors have and cause discoloration of wood.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm still waiting to here if the bark was ringed with holes before I give my judgment. ;D

[estiers]

Is the "Box Elder Bug" a slang term for the Ambrosia Beetle?

From my experience, "box elder bugs" (Leptocoris trivittatus) are in the order Heteroptera and "Ambrosia Beetles" (like Xyloborus spp) are in the order Coleoptera.  So they are not very closely related.

[Imasap]

Here we go with that queen of the Nile stuff again. ;D

In ambrosia maple you can easily see the worm hole in the wood. I would think if the ambrosia beetle is the cause of the red in the Box Elder then you will see the same tell-tale work holes.