Powder Post Beetle questions

Re: Powder Post Beetle questions

Dick Coers

It’s my understanding that Boracare is a preventative. It will not kill eggs. You didn’t mention current moisture level, but I’d take it to a kiln. Oh the joy of moving and restocking lumber. Remember sterilized wood can be reinfested.

Bora care - Powder Post Beetle questions

Chad Pearson

I don’t claim to be an expert but my understanding is that Bora Care penetrates the wood because of the glycol component that helps keep the solution from drying too quickly. I thought that Tim-Bor did not have the added glycol and thus was a surface treatment that will prevent an infestation, but won’t cure an existing problem.

That distinction, gleaned from far more knowledgeable people on this message board, was what made me choose Bora Care in the past.

Clearly I made a mistake....

Barry Irby

When I stacked this lumber years ago, I should have sprayed it with either BoraCare or Timbor. At the time I had a broken hip and it was all I could do to get it stacked.

I will call Nisus tomorrow and get their advice. They make both. I feel like they owe me a favor. As a Home Inspector I recommended Boracare hundreds of times. Sold a train car load of it for them.

Now to find a kiln.

How the boron containing stuff works

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Borate in the bug digestive system deactivates the chemical machinery that is essential to covert cellulose to bug food. So if they don't eat it it doesn't starve them to death. It follows that the borate needs to be where they are eating and that is deep within, way out of range of any borate product applied to the surface.

I have a test going where I fumigated a pile with malathion. Apparently, as hoped, it has enough vapor pressure to generate fumes that penetrated their tunnels. It seems to have killed the infestation that was well underway in an ash tree I cut. Not ready to declare victory yet. Will report back when I have a conclusion.

Re: Bora care - Powder Post Beetle questions

david weaver

I had PPB in my porch when I first moved into my house. Not bad, but enough that there'd be carcasses laying around and frass coming out of some of the posts. Clean it, it would reappear, of course. Posts seemed sound, so for about 6 months, I coated the joints and the wood with tim-bor anywhere I saw PPB, and the frass piles actually stopped pretty quickly. I continued to apply the tim-bor and they never returned. the porch has since been converted to a permanent room, so I can only guess.

I think repeated applications to ends and exposed areas will eventually kill the bugs, but I wouldn't count on any of them to kill PPB already in wood with just one application. they have to ingest it somehow.

Not advocating...

david weaver

....guessing at uses by sharing my experience. I went for easy at first and would guess that there would be many cases where what I did wouldn't work because of lack of joints for penetration or lack of contact with the beetles.

And, of course, there's no guarantee that the beetles died out because of the tim-bor.

The good news is they are only in sapwood *LINK*

Keith Newton

So,,,, if I recall, this was a pretty large tree, so you’ll still have pretty wide planks after sawing the sapwood off.

Then, this would be a good time to read my article in the link below. I’ll be stacking and drying a few hundred board feet of QS White Oak in the next few weeks.


http://http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=newarticles&file=articles_946.shtml

So I talked to Nisus....

Barry Irby

The maker of both BoraCare and TimBor. I spoke to Sarah. Told her that I had coated all of the exterior surfaces with BoraCare in a 1 to 1 with water dilution. She tells me it is good and the deed is done. The only thing I did she did not like was I dead packed it and she thinks I should have stickered it. So I will sticker the rest of it.

Hey Barry have you ever seen this method?. *LINK*

Keith Newton

I think Mark Mendal has mentioned doing something like this.

I've got some black plastic bags and may give it a quick test tomorrow. It will be 93º here tomorrow, so getting another 40 - 70º above that would do the trick.

You ought to give it a try to. You could probably do this easier in your driveway than hauling it to somebody else.


https://cool.conservation-us.org/waac/wn/wn23/wn23-2/wn23-207.html

Very Interesting....

Barry Irby

I built my house in 1978 and soon after added a green house on the south side to include a solar water heater, now defunct.

The greenhouse has a single layer of glass. I was installing it and immediately discovered the temperature inside was about 60 degrees (F) warmer than outside. It's 2 stories tall. There is lumber that has been piled in it for years, probably pretty well cooked by now.

I have been thinking of clearing it out and moving the bug infested stuff in there, but that's a LOT of work. Time to get busy and use some of this stuff.

I was a builder back in the day and was fascinated with solar heat and super insulation. Built a lot of houses that are better insulated than what they are building today. The solar kiln idea has been on my radar for years, just too old or lazy to do it.