Wood boring insects

[Tiffany]

I rescued several old doors (100+ years old?) from a farm house that has been abandoned for over 50 years. I want to use them to add an antique flair to my house, but they definitely have holes from some kind of small wood boring beetle. I have read that the best way to treat the problem is to heat them to 130 degrees F but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Any suggestions? How worried do I need to be about this? I don't mind that these old doors have holes in them because I like the character, but I certainly don't want to bring an infestation into my house.

 

[Jeff]

I'd suggest contacting Scott Smith (scsmith42). He's in New Hill, Chatham county. Maybe he could put your doors in one of his kilns to heat treat them at +130. :dontknow:

I don't know where you're located, but there are lots of members who have drying kilns that will probably be willing to help you out. :help:

 

[Dragon]

Don't know if this would be an option for you or not but a couple of things I have found that work for me with my stumps and logs may work for you.:dontknow: I've poured denatured alcohol all over the piece to kill off the critters. I've poured turpentine on some and that killed them off pretty well too. Well thinned linseed oil works also and has the added benefit of conditioning the wood a bit too. You may wanna give one or more of these a try and see if they work for your purposes.

 

[scsmith42]

Tiffany, depending upon how quickly you need to use the doors I can add them into my kiln during the "sterilization phase" of my next kiln run. This would probably be around 7 weeks from now.

 

[Tiffany]

Thanks Scott! I'll PM you.