What a waste

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Robert166

robert166
Corporate Member
I have some walnut that was stored outside for awhile. Moved it inside and kept it stored on the top shelf for over a year. Pulled some down yesterday, and guess what I found? Powder Post beetle holes! What joy did flood my soul. Going to go through it tonight and cut as much of it out as I can. Probably end up with half of what I had. Any comments on the product "Bora-Care"? It is expensive, so want to be sure I am using the correct product.
 

jrfuda

New User
John
That's the worst. I had the same thing happen with about 600BF of quarter sawn red oak. Kept it in the garage for about a year (was stored outside at the mill) - went to se it and powder everywhere. I moved the stack board by board to another part of the garage, sweeping off the dust and saturating each side with timbor as I restacked it. About six months later, I used some of the wood and there was no new activity. The loss was not as bad as I thought as, for the 10 or so boards I've surfaced so far, I'm still getting 1/2" to 3/4"+ boards once I remove all the bore holes. Most of the damage was on the edges - usually the sap wood edge, so I lost more width than thickness, though there were some spots that were total losses as well.

I chose to use timbor at the time as I had a 5-gallon bucket of timbor powder. All that said, I'm not sure how much of a difference the timbor made in stopping the activity as I think the wood may have been too dry for re-infestation at that point because I keep a dehumidifier in the garage and keep it at a pretty consistent 35% or less year round (keeps my cast iron ops rust free).
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
I suspect the beetles were already in the wood when you brought it inside. BoraCare and Timbor are the same chemical with different names but the same effect. The beetles may be long gone and no longer a problem other than the tiny holes.




I have some walnut that was stored outside for awhile. Moved it inside and kept it stored on the top shelf for over a year. Pulled some down yesterday, and guess what I found? Powder Post beetle holes! What joy did flood my soul. Going to go through it tonight and cut as much of it out as I can. Probably end up with half of what I had. Any comments on the product "Bora-Care"? It is expensive, so want to be sure I am using the correct product.
 

derek-s

New User
Derek
I use Bora Care to treat salvaged wood for powder post beetles. Bora Care comes as a concentrate and is mixed with water and sprayed on. It works by poisoning the wood to wood-destroying insects, so it has a long lasting effect.
I believe that BoraCare can be used in a single application and will deliver enough chemical to be effective against rot and several insects. Timbor - from my experience - requires two applications to reach the same strength. Both must be used indoors or out of the weather (since they're toxic for human) and both are water soluble.
 

Rwe2156

DrBob
Senior User
Several years ago I installed some crown and when I recently installed another built in, I notices all these little holes in the old crown......
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
In American Black Walnut, I have not seen Powder Post Beetles go beyond the sap wood. Did they actually get into the dark heart wood?
 

Robert166

robert166
Corporate Member
They got into the vast majority of it. Spent a couple of hours last night "culling and cussing" and working the miter saw overtime. I know I should have taken preventative measures, the blame rests on me. One of those things I knew better, but let it slip. So tonight the table saw gets a work out. Caught myself looking at the cutoffs and wondering what could I make out of this piece? Hurts to toss it onto the burn pile.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
The beetles may be long gone so you may not have an active infestation any longer and you may be culling some usable wood! :eusa_doh:

What happened to your Bora-Care/Timbor original idea? Why did you decide not to use it and opted for culling firewood instead? Just curious.







They got into the vast majority of it. Spent a couple of hours last night "culling and cussing" and working the miter saw overtime. I know I should have taken preventative measures, the blame rests on me. One of those things I knew better, but let it slip. So tonight the table saw gets a work out. Caught myself looking at the cutoffs and wondering what could I make out of this piece? Hurts to toss it onto the burn pile.
 

ScottM

Scott
Staff member
Corporate Member
Scott Smith (scsmith42) runs a kiln operations in New Hill, NC. That is less then an hour from you. He has the ability to sterlize the wood. You should contact him before stoking the fire pit.
 

Robert166

robert166
Corporate Member
I will try and post some photos and maybe that will answer the question. But when I have over 50 holes in one piece, don't think it is good for much. Tried planning down a few pieces, the holes were deep. But you are welcome to what is getting tossed.
 

Chris C

Chris
Senior User
I will try and post some photos and maybe that will answer the question. But when I have over 50 holes in one piece, don't think it is good for much. Tried planning down a few pieces, the holes were deep. But you are welcome to what is getting tossed.

You can sterilize the wood yourself. Making a homemade sterilization chamber isn't hard or expensive.

The holes add character.....
 

scsmith42

New User
Scott Smith
I have some walnut that was stored outside for awhile. Moved it inside and kept it stored on the top shelf for over a year. Pulled some down yesterday, and guess what I found? Powder Post beetle holes! What joy did flood my soul. Going to go through it tonight and cut as much of it out as I can. Probably end up with half of what I had. Any comments on the product "Bora-Care"? It is expensive, so want to be sure I am using the correct product.

Robert - there are several different species of powder post beetles. One of them - lyctid - will infest dry lumber. Others only infest green or partially dry lumber and leave the wood when it gets below 20% MC.

It is very unusual to find insects in black walnut because the heartwood is toxic (although they can and do infest the sapwood). I have seen termite infestations in dry stacked green BW, but only once.

Did you find fresh indications of frass (very fine sawdust) on your boards? It so that indicates that the PPB are active. The larvae can stay active inside the lumber for up to 7 years. One thing that would concern me is if they have infected other wood that you have in your shop.

Heat sterilization is the only method that is 100% successful. You need to heat the lumber until all portions of it are 133F or greater.

Regarding Boracare versus Timbor, Boracare is typically used for dry lumber because the ethylene glycol base does not evaporate quickly and allows the borate to wick deeper into the lumber. Timbor is mixed in water and thus only penetrates at a shallow level into dry lumber. It is very effective on green lumber though, because the moisture in the lumber will wick it deeper.

Personally I am not a fan of rewetting dry lumber because of the high potential for surface checking to result. Thus my standard recommendation for treatment is heat sterilization. As Chris wrote, you can sterilize it yourself by building a simple chamber from foam board and using a space heater. There was an article in the November 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine that details how to sterilize lumber yourself.

Scott
 

Robert166

robert166
Corporate Member
IMG_0676.JPGIMG_0678.JPG

Here are some pictures of my prized wood collection. :gar-Bi
 

Robert166

robert166
Corporate Member
No, but it was pretty dusty because of the location. I will cull through my scrap pile and save some of the best of the worst. But if they are sleeping only to emerge like some thing from an alien movie and attack my other boards, well the fire pile they must go!
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
As Chris wrote, you can sterilize it yourself by building a simple chamber from foam board and using a space heater. There was an article in the November 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine that details how to sterilize lumber yourself.

Chris has done done it too based on the very brief article by Christian Becksvoort in FWW. As I recall, he had no problem getting the wood up to and holding the recommended temperature. David Walker (DSWalker) did it too on a larger scale with a lot of wood from his farm.
 
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