Parasites! Critters in my logs

[Mettlemickey]

Ok, so i was just out chopping a few rounds ive had laying around for a few months.

I chopped one open and found a maggot right in the middle and some tiny thin worms.

Any ideas what these are?

I slung the maggot before i got the camera out, but heres some pics of the worms and the damage whatever they are did to the tree (it was like that when i collected it - guess thats why it was felled). Also some shots of the bark to help with tree id.

What do you think? Is it wood worm? Should i get rid of this stuff and the splits i got from it?

Thanks
MM

 

[brad wilton]

had those in some wood my friend gave me .they seem to bore into the wood if you have pine floors DO NOT BRING IN HOUSE chased one for 6 months putting ajax and other home crud to no avail died of old age i guess but had little mountains of sawdust everywhere

 

[Wood Duck]

I wouldn't worry about the worms and grubs. If the wood is solid enough to split instead of crumble, it should be decent firewood. I think most of the bugs will leave as the wood seasons and gets too dry for them.

 

[Dix]

I'd split it, season it, and burn it.

 

[Mettlemickey]

well the centre was quote black and I guess therefore starting to rot it split like a good un' though so cant be too far gone.

Have stacked it in the log store. Will see if that falls down / gets infested over the next year before I bring it in

Any idea what kind of wood it is? I'm guessing birch or beech?

 

[osagebow]

Grubs eat wood. No big deal. They'll die or mature and leave as it dries. They won't come out of the wood and attack your house if they do make it inside. Any maturing adults ( Usually a small beetle, especialy if you get your wood from Liverpool ) won't cause any problems. That said, I've never seen an insect emerge inside. Not much attacks split, dry stuff.
Good fish bait if that's your thing.

 

[Firefighter938]

I'm not sure what that is. Kind of looks like mulberry.

 

[SawdustSA]

We get woodworm here in Black Wattle firewood. They stay active for a few months and eat up a fair percentage of your logs. Even when split. I had a large load of logs from a partially standing dead tree towards the end of last year. Being summer here in Africa right now, I stacked the splits into 2 HH's and wrapped them with plastic to create a solar kiln. I am hoping to kill them off.

So far the temperature inside has only gone as high as 113°F inside since our summer has not been very hot so far. I have not checked whether is has killed them off yet. Here are some photos of what they look like.

 

[Mettlemickey]

Wow those grubs are massive, the one i found was a centimetre max.

I guess I can live with them eating my wood pile a bit, so long as they don't keep munching when the logs come inside. I guess it will be about a year before then so hopefully they'll have died off / moved on before then.

 

[Kenster]

In the tree that I took down last week, a still living but weakening oak, I found several with grubs the thickness of my pinky finger but an inch or two longer. I also found exposed termite grubs and wood ants. I pulled a bunch of the big grubs out with my fingers and banged the other splits hard on the ground to know the ants and termites off. Then stacked 'em. No biggie. I'm at least two years away from burning this wood.