critters?

Re: critters?

Ted Wong

>What you're seeing is the evidence that the eastern deathwatch Powder Post Beetle has been in the wood at one time. because there are holes in the surface means that some bugs have passed their larval stage and moved on to the real world. Can't tell you if the wood is still infected or not. You'll have to determine that by cutting into it and seeing if you run into anymore of the critters.

But from my personal experience I've found the bugs sort of disappear as the MC of the wood decreases during the drying process.

This may not be true in all cases but it's just from my personal observations of a pile of wood that I had that was infected, I quarantined it and watched over a period of 2-3 years and hadn't seen any more of the telltale piles of dust around the wood pile.

9 months ago

Howard

>Wife corrected me. I got the wood before the summer if that makes any difference.

Howard

Re: critters?

Robin Corell, Atascadero CA

>The only walnut I have is Claro and I have never had any type of insect attack the heartwood. I heve seen evidence of powderpost beatles and termites in the sapwood but they never bother the heart wood in the walnut I have. I think claro may have a higher juglone content based on the severity of allergies to claro vs eastern. not sure if that will affect your mileage.

Robin Corell

Re: critters?

Basil

>I've seen a few powder post beetles in the sap wood of black walnut but never in the heart wood.

I'd suggest that if you're worried about investation, cut the sap wood off and burn it.

Basil

Re: critters?

Barry Irby

>As a Home Inspector, I see Powder Post Beetle infestations regularly. In floor joists, not walnut. The only way I know to tell if they are still active is to paint the lumber with a contrasting color of paint. I usually suggest black, but in your case you might want to think about white on the dark wood. The idea is to paint it and be sure you have 100% coverage (not all of it, but a few "sample" areas), wait a while and inspect it to see if they have cut new holes. The probelm is you have to wait as much as a year. My usnderstandign is these insects move very slowly and go through periods of dormancy, so you ahve to wait quite a while to see if there is activity. If you had realized and done this when you got the wood, you would be almost home now. It sounds like you have a mature infestation, if there are more than a few holes. They may ahve run their cycle and moved on. I too have seen insects in sap wood on walnut but much less in heartwood. One advantage to monitoring them with paint is that it stays in place until you remove it and it does not hurt the wood or poison it.

Waiting for their dust to fall out of the holes is not a really good indicator. Sometimes you get a neat little cone of dust and you are nearly sure, but often you get a sort of general sifting and that just may be the dust falling out from old activity.

I doubt they moved into your house.

Re: critters?

Keith Newton

>Sometimes when I find holes in wood, I find it useful inspect them with magnification. If they are darker on the inside, or there is any staining around the hole, this would indicate that the insects were in there when the tree was standing, or still wet with moisture. If the insides of the holes are lighter that the surrounding wood, it probably was later.

Another thing to watch for, is the orientation of the holes relative to the face of the board. If all of the holes are perfect circles, the insects emerged after the wood was cut into lumber. If some of the holes show up running along the face of the board, they were in there before it was cut to this dimension.

I don't think there is much out there that will want to eat dry walnut heartwood, however if it is only in the sapwood, I would do like someone else suggested and cut it off and burn that part, just to play it safe, unless you want to heat it up to 130� to the core for a few hours.