Osage vs. bugs

[Aaron H]

A few weeks ago I got ahold of a local guy selling some osage fence posts.  I went out and took a look at them and picked out a few corner posts, 11"+.  The guy didn't know anything about building bows and he just threw them in a field and left them.  Well I started to tear into them knowing there would probably be some bugs in there.  Well there definitely was.  A lot of them, eating deep into the heartwood as well. 

Any suggestions on how to stop them where they are now?  I have heard if you spray the bark with diesel fuel then they won't lay their larvae.  I understand this is preventing them, but now that I have them already, what are my options to kill them? 

[Pat B]

Spray something is each tunnel to kill the grubs. diesel will work or maybe eve WD40 or spray carb cleaner. Removing the bark will eliminate any possible future infestation.
 If you remove the bark first split the log, remove bark and sapwood and seal the back and ends well. 

[Aaron H]

Yea, I already split them up, and removed the bark from a couple of them.  but I have probably 20+ staves and I can't work all of them down right away.

Good idea with the carb cleaner though. 
I wonder if brake cleaner would work also?

[osage outlaw]

Remove any bug infested wood.  If it goes deep enough you can split it off

[Aaron H]

Split off a few rings instead of shaving them off with a drawknife?

[Pat B]

Falcon, break cleaner should work too.
 Yes to your question about splitting off bad wood.

[Aaron H]

I have never tried splitting osage like that.
Could someone break that down for me please.  Any tricks to it?

[Eric Krewson]

In this picture I am removing a belly split, later I on some of the same wood I made a similar split a couple rings into the heartwood to get rid of this very thick sapwood. You start by using a screwdriver or small wedge and start a split by following the arc on a growth ring on the end of your stave.

[Aaron H]

Very cool.  Thank you guys

[osage outlaw]

I just cleaned up a bunch of bug infested osage like that.  It is so much easier than draw knifing it off.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,47273.0.html

[soy]

I had that happen.... Went to the center of every darn log  burnt a full car trailer - 10 possible staves....stuff burns HOT.  Got rid of the grubs that a way

[Aaron H]

By the way Eric, I like that wooden wedge you are using.  Is that osage as well?

[Aaron H]

I also just split a stave using this method.  It worked good at first but then towards the middle the split got a lot thinner, like it was no longer following the ring.  Could I have been trying to take off to little?

[osage outlaw]

Go at it again from the other end.  You might have an island in the middle to draw knife off but its a lot better than the entire stave.

[Aaron H]

Yea, that's exactly what I did.   I was only trying to take off about 5/8"-3/4", is that too little for this technique?