A couple of woodworking buddies and I cut an osage orange tree back in February.
We sawed into lumber the pieces that were big enough to position on the mill, stickered the lumber, and stacked most of the smaller stuff behind my shop. All of it was sprayed with my usual concoction of liquid termite killer, roach powder, and muriatic acid.
A few days ago, I noticed piles of sawdust on the small pieces. I stripped away the bark and found this little guy (and a bunch of his friends and relatives):
Matching his portrait on the Internet shows him to be probably a eucalyptus (or Asian) longhorned beetle larva. So, what now? Bora-care? More boric acid? Exorcist? Bonfire?
At least one has sampled the heartwood--there's a tell-tale mound of bright yellow debris. I'm hoping they won't go for the sawn lumber, since there's no bark and very little sapwood.
when an infestation of asian longhorn beetle was discovered in southwest Ohio the state ordered clear cutting of all trees they feed on (there are quite a few) over a large area. By all means contact the state - if they get established in the US the damage will be far worse than chestnut blight and ash borer and dutch elm all combined.
I called Nisus Corp Friday and talked to one of their Tech's about spraying my red oak slabs. He was very helpful. For prevention he recommended their product BoraCare with Mold Care diluted 5 to 1 and sprayed on liberally immediately.
For older dry and possible infested wood he recommended BoraCare diluted one to one. and sprayed on liberally. It will penetrate several inches into the wood. I will leave it to you to read all the technical data about penetration, etc. The stuff does not mix easily so its a good idea to use hot water and clean the sprayer with hot water or throw it away.
I told them that as a Home Inspector I had been recommending BoraCare for years. He tells me they are now No. 1 int eh industry. Nisus makes both Boracare and Timbor. I have always recommended BoraCare for treating floor joists because properly mixed it requires a single application. Timbor requires two applications. For floor joists, that ain't happening.
Boracare was a breakout product for treating infested houses. Up until then the only choice was to tent and gas the house with stuff like Methyl Bromide, really deadly chemicals and they left no residual protection. Borates are much safer.
The Borate can interfere with glue later if you use PVA (Titebond or Elmer's). The polyurethane glues and Epoxy will be fine. So if you soak with stronger mix of BoraCare test your glue on it later. The Tech at Nisus told me the 5 to 1 mix would not affect the glue but the 1 to 1 version could. They suggested buying it from DoMyOwn.Com. Mine is on order.
I used timbor - more than two applications, when we had powderpost beetles in our....well, posts on the patio on our house. They were already in the posts with settled frass piles around and from time to time, carcasses laying around (anew, so the holes were active). I applied it heavily repeatedly, despite the advice from forums at the time that it wouldn't work.
The frass piles and carcasses ceased to show up after a few applications and that was the end of that. Haven't seen them since.
A couple of guys from the Alabama Forestry Commission came by today and poked and prodded and collected a few larvae in a jar. They said there hadn't been many sightings of Asian longhorned beetle in this area, but they agreed that's what the larvae appear to be.
The specimens are off to Auburn for positive identification and (I hope) advice on salvaging my wood.
For treating wood in place like door jambs and brick molding and posts you can use solid versions such as BOR-8 rods. You drill hoes into the wood and insert the little rods and plug the holes with putty or caulk. If the wood gets wet, the rods slowly dissolve and soak into the wet wood.
