Borers are killing me, help!

[Springbuck]

  I am losing  stave after stave to these little borers I have never seen or had before last year, maybe almost two years....  I must have brought them into the garage and they are living there now, but I have never seen an adult.   I haven"t finished a bow for  a year because I get one almost done, come back in a few weeks, and it's destroyed.

  They ONLY eat my elm, yellow locust, maple, mulberry, and, funny enough, bamboo.   That I know of.

  They don't eat hickory, chokecherry, serviceberry, BL, plum, apple, oak, or any of my tropicals.  That I know of.

  They show up only on wood that has been around for a while, like bows I have roughed out, set aside to dry, and come back to after several months.

  The weird thing is they seem to show up AFTER I have just heat treated woods, or done dry heat correction.  This seems like it would easily kill any eggs or larvae.

  They seem to eat only spring growth.  I have had several staves basically delaminate between spring growth rings.

  They come out the back of the bow, and make a dozens of tiny holes, maybe pencil lead sized?

   What are they?  Can I get rid of them entirely?  WHY do they show up fastest in wood I just cooked to 300  degreesF?  What can I treat them with or dunk them in that won't poison me when I start making sawdust?    I've never had insect problems before, except with stuff I left outside with the bark on forever or something.

 

 

[bowandarrow473]

BURN THEM ALL!!!!!

[Pat B]

Will you post pics of the damage. That might indicate what insect it is.

[Springbuck]

  I only ever get to use a computer between patients at work.  That's why I never post any bow pics, but I will try.

  Imagine an elm stave just separating into slats of intact summer growth, but with the winter ring eaten into a labyrinth of tiny squiggles about 0.8 mm in size.  The whole thing.  Some fold and splinter while they separate, but a couple have literally split into front and back halves for the full length of the bow.

  There are tiny, clean-edged holes the same size on the back.  Sometimes a few, usually a bunch, all over every inch of the surface.  When you pick the thing up and tap one end on a floor, little clouds of wood dust/bug poop puff out.

[Marc St Louis]

Sounds like the Powderpost Beetle

P.S.  Here's an article on them http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/powderpostbeetles.htm

[vinemaplebows]

Mule team Borax hot water..... liquify it, about 1lbs per gallon, spray everything. Anything that eats this will be toast.

[JW_Halverson]

BURN THEM ALL!!!!!

Hate to say it, but if you hang on to your wood stash, you are hanging onto the mother culture of these bugs.  Start with a clean break.  Burn it all, clean up the shop, sweep and dust everything, sweep and dust again, mix up a strong borax solution and use one of those pump up weed sprayer rigs and spray down the shop. 

Wood borers are endemic almost everywhere, they will come in on your next load of wood, but you should be able to do better control by using bug bombing techniques and/or borax treatment of your wood stash on a regular basis.

[stuckinthemud]

If you know what they like to eat, and they definitely do not eat other wood, then burn what they like and keep what they don't. Next season put out sacrificial wood, their favourite type, to attract the parent bugs, then after egg-laying season take that timber and burn it.  Keep doing that every season

[Eric Krewson]

I brought a powder post beetle infested stave into my basement without knowing it. The little rascals migrated to my floor joists, $600 later in treatments I got rid of them under my house.

[sleek]

  I only ever get to use a computer between patients at work.  That's why I never post any bow pics, but I will try.

  Imagine an elm stave just separating into slats of intact summer growth, but with the winter ring eaten into a labyrinth of tiny squiggles about 0.8 mm in size.  The whole thing.  Some fold and splinter while they separate, but a couple have literally split into front and back halves for the full length of the bow.

  There are tiny, clean-edged holes the same size on the back.  Sometimes a few, usually a bunch, all over every inch of the surface.  When you pick the thing up and tap one end on a floor, little clouds of wood dust/bug poop puff out.

Man if the delam rings like that, id feed em some thick ring stuff and when they are done, use the newly made ring boards and make laminates. Sounds like an opportunity really.

[Springbuck]

Maybe.  They do eventually eat holes through the summer stuff, straight out, locking the front with tiny holes. But, you literally could likely split the summer rings apart like basket slats.  The problem is the bows they have ruined wouldn't show signs of damage until they start to crack, and they do separate/pop loose between layers.  But by that time they are usually ready to break or have hinged.  Then when I finish them off over my knee, you've never seen so many fine splinters.  It looks like a big bristle brush.

Borax it is.