What kind of Larvae loves pine??

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WoodPorn

Minister of Fire
Aug 24, 2009
1,503
South of the beloved Patriots
I split up a previously CL scored pine yesterday and found out why the tree was downed, it seems it was (is) riddled with a boring larvae of some sort.

Any guesses on what it is, and will there be any wood left to burn come next summer (campground firewood)?
 

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I often find larvae like these in pines. I think they have already done about all the damage they'll ever do. There should be no problem storing the wood, at least not due to these guys.
 
Wood Duck said:
I often find larvae like these in pines. I think they have already done about all the damage they'll ever do. There should be no problem storing the wood, at least not due to these guys.


yup, everything Wood Duck said. they are some kind of beetle larvae.

really cool thing though - I had these big white pine logs a couple years ago that sat for a few months before the guy came to mill them - anyways, they had a bunch of those same little grubs in them and I'd get this big Pileated woodpecker come and just tear into these logs going after the grubs - he really loved them. It was fun watching. He bored some big holes in those logs getting at them.
 
Had a good sized Spruce fall a couple years ago. It sat on the ground for over a year before I had a chance to get to it.
The splits were full of that larvae, but they left as soon as the wood started drying. Took down another Spruce early this week, splits went on top of the oak stacks in the back, and I'm keeping an eye on them. Don't know what the larvae is.
The wood burned great. :coolsmile:
 
I get pine borers in fresh cut pine on the stacks. You can hear them at work and they leave a ton of shavings on the stacks and lots of holes in the splits. After the stuff drys for a few months they lose interest. Of course they probably planted a few million eggs in those holes.
 
BrotherBart" date=" said:
Of course they probably planted a few million eggs in those holes.

Is that what they are calling it in the retirement homes these days pop? :)

Had these guys all in the pine I was splitting today. Hard to imagine a beetle would come of them. They are huge! Been losing a lot of pines lately. I wonder if these guys are killing the trees.
 
I'm working thru 5 cords of pine from a neighbor and I'm finding dozens per day while splitting. I save them for a neighbor who uses them for fishing. While all that wood was sitting, I could hear them crunching away at night from the second floor bedroom.
 
Great...just what I need, to introduce a tree killer to another location!
 
That's a pine sawyer beetle larvae, it will not usually attack healthy trees. If you cut/split/stack when fresh cut you probably wont get any in your wood. It will infest downed whole logs and standing dead.

I'm not surprised the arborist suggests removing a tree that has a bug, when your only tool is a chainsaw every problem looks like firewood.
 
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