Osage wood borers.

[stringstretcher]

Can some one explain to me about the osage wood borers.  How do they get in the wood to start with?  What is their life span if there is one?  And what will kill them?

[Hrothgar]

Occasionally I have had  problems with borers. Probably the way to avoid them is by taking off the bark and sapwood soon after the wood is cut and then sealing the back and ends of the staves with sealer, polyurethane, or some similiar sealer. If you aren't wanting to remove the bark immediately there are poisons that can be purchased (I haven't used them so someone else will need to chime in here). Another option would be to leave the staves submerged in moving water fot several months--evidently this is a method the English used when curing yew staves, this would probably eliminate the pests as well.

[okie64]

My experience has been that if I bring my wood inside my shop immediately after cutting and store it there then I never have a problem with them. But if the wood is left outside for any period of time then it will usually end up having some bugs in it. I have stored whole logs with bark on inside my shop for years and when I get around to splitting them and taking the bark off they never have had any bug holes. I do have borers that get into my maple trees in my yard so I picked up some viper bug spray at the local co-op and it seemed to put a stop to them. You could probably spray the bark down with raid or something like that also if you wanted to try that.

[Pat B]

Charlie, the bores eggs are layed in the bark while the tree is still alive. Once harvested the eggs hatch and the "worms" begin to bore into the wood. Some only go as deep nas the sapwood but others will bore straight into the heartwood.
  To prevent damage you will either have to treat the bark with a pesticide or remove the bark when the tree is first cut. If you remove the bark then you will have to remove the sapwood or it will check even if you seal it most times.

[gstoneberg]

The borer wasps will also lay eggs on downed or cut wood that still has bark.  I had some osage I cut up in Nebraska where we never had to worry about borers and brought it down to Texas when we moved.  The crazy bugs came in my shop and filled that wood up with borers.  I do not normally remove the sapwood right away, but rather spray the wood with a bug spray I get at Lowes by the gallon.  Each treatment lasts about 2 years, though I normally spray any bark exposed to the elements outside every year.

George

[Sidewinder]

I always debark down to sapwood a soon as I can to avoid any infestations as well as to help speed up the curing process. The sapwood comes off much easier (not easy just much easier)
when its still wet. This also makes it easier when it comes time to make a bow. All you gotta do is chase the ring on the back and then layout the bow and your off to the races. Just my two cents worth.   Dannny

[stringstretcher]

Well we will just have to deal with what we have now, and go from there.  I did wonder when the lava got into the wood, so thanks for sharing that info.  We cut this wood the first of last year, and the I got down and could not get it split.  So it had to just lay on the ground until the last couple of weeks.  It is really funny though, we split one of the biggest logs, and only found 4 lava on the four staves.  Another log we split, I had a stave of it yesterday that I was shaving down, and found 18 lava in just 23 inches of the stave.  That entire log was just infested with the little buggers.  We hope they just liked that one log and congregated there...Lol.

Here is 20 staves we split out yesterday, so going to be fun to see what's in them.

[wildkatt]

  Ifin I find them in my Bowdark  I give them a spritz with WD-40 the little buggers come out die then melt. Works for me.

Katt

[Sidewinder]

Thats a neat trick Wildkatt. Never thought of it. Nice to know.   Danny

[wildkatt]

  The WD makes them a little to gooey and theres never enough for a snack

Katt

[gstoneberg]

Hey Katt, good to see your posts again.  Hope your elk season was a good one.

I have not found osage sapwood harder to take off green.  I would say just the opposite, I can often rip the entire sapwood off in a single pass if the wood is dry.  However, if your wood was laying on the ground at least the staves that were down are going to be quite wet still.   Be sure you seal the back as you remove the sapwood or it may still split.  I've had old logs (3 years cut) that were laying on the ground make great bows from the side that was up and bows that took bad set from the side that was down as it was still much too green.

Very straight osage!!  I sure don't see bodark like that around here.

George

[stringstretcher]

Does anyone have a name or brand of what insecticide one could purchase to spray on the bark when you first cut the osage?

[RidgeRunner]

I use liquid "seven".  That is most likely not spelled right but it is close. It is also pronounced almost the same.

Day # 1:
Cut the logs.
Split into half's or quarters if they are to big to move
Seal ends.
Put them some place where they will stay dry.
Spray the bark on the logs down well as soon after cutting as possible with bug killer.  Soak them with the sprayer.
Day # 2:
Soak them once more with the bug killer.
Add another layer of end sealer.  I go about a foot up the log.

I let mine dry for a year in the barn before I start removing the bark and sapwood.
When I do I remove all of the sap wood and reseal the backs with poly.
They are also split into 3" or 4" staves at this time.
Then it is back into the barn for at least another year.

David

[gstoneberg]

Does anyone have a name or brand of what insecticide one could purchase to spray on the bark when you first cut the osage?

I use Ortho Home Defense in a gallon jug with a handy sprayer.  It was the sprayer that sold me.  Wet it down good, and I do 2 coats the first application.

George

[stringstretcher]

Thanks guys for the info.  Be heading out to look for either of the ones mentioned, or both...lol