Powder Post Beetles

[velvetfoot]

I found the talcum powder like piles and the small holes in some of the outside pieces of wood I stacked in the attached garage.
My plan is to cross my fingers and hope for the best.
Maybe build a wood shed next year.
I just read of another member stacking a couple of cords in his garage.
There must be others too.
How worried should I be?

It is extremely convenient to bring the wood in this way during the cold and snowy winter.

 

[Dexter]

I store pine in my garage. 'Almost all beetle kill from pine bark beetles, but we find powder post also. Nine years, and they haven't gone after the house. Inside the house seems "bug free."

 

[velvetfoot]

Thanks. I tediously examined and brushed off every piece of wood and took off loose bark before bringing into the garage in the summer.
I never heard of powder post beetles before and wasn't looking for it.
I did see a lot of very tiny insects under the bark, mostly.

 

[Girl]

Are you sure it is PPB's?
My wood is very close to the house & I store where the landlord stored his wood & don't seem to have issues, aside from the spiders who eat well around here.

Adults come out once a year and can lay eggs while they are munching their way out.
Since you are going to be burning the stuff eggs & any larvae will be dormant in a couple/few weeks anyway.
They do not eat treated or varnished wood.
It can take a while to know if a home is infested because the adults come out once a year.

When in doubt call a pest control company/person, I have found them very helpful when I have called with pest questions.

 

[velvetfoot]

Thanks. I'll be on the lookout.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Store it inside a wood shed and you'll still have the PPB. Only thing to worry about is if they get into handles of axes, shovels, etc. It does seem to weaken them an awful lot. lol Other than that, we never worry about them. btw, we tend to find more of the PPB in the elm than in other wood, but we also leave our elm standing until it is well past dead. Standing, but all bark gone and hopefully most of the moisture too.

 

[Vic99]

If your garage is unheated, you'll have less to worry about. It takes bugs a while to wake up from the cold.

I'm going to wait until late October, early November before I move my wood onto an unheated covered porch.

 

[velvetfoot]

Thanks for the replies.
Next year, I'll move the wood later in the year I suppose, if I don't go the wood shed route.
I can't believe how early it gets dark now, and I'm told, (um, directed), that we should be doing fun stuff on the weekends.
As I said, it is very convenient to store it in the garage for the winter.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Axes and shovels etc are usually OK from attack unless they are water logged and headed towards rot anyway I think.

I picked up some apple from a friend (helped him out by removing the base after a lightning strike), and like many big old apple tree- there was some rot and some ppb's when I split it. This is fresh wood- the ppb's were only in the dead part that had spalting. I'm going to monitor them as the wood dries and it gets colder out.

 

[velvetfoot]

It was kinda freaky seeing a line of little talcum powder like piles of wood coming from little holes in the split above.
Who knows what the interior sections has.
I'll just have to burn down that ~5 cord pile quick!

 

[Girl]

Thanks for the replies.
Next year, I'll move the wood later in the year I suppose, if I don't go the wood shed route.
I can't believe how early it gets dark now, and I'm told, (um, directed), that we should be doing fun stuff on the weekends.
As I said, it is very convenient to store it in the garage for the winter.

I thought moving & stacking the firewood was fun!?!?!?

If I had a garage I would store the fire wood in the garage too.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Axes and shovels etc are usually OK from attack unless they are water logged and headed towards rot anyway I think.

I used to think that also until at my in-laws I grabbed a couple of tools that hadn't been used for a while. Post hole digger was shot and so was a shovel handle. Little critters had taken up residence...and the tools were dry....very dry.

 

[Dave_1]

Picked up a couple of these a few years back

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9875060

for @ $5 each after xmas at Big Lots. Probably higher this year after Xmas due to crude cost.

Procedure;

Put one on a hand truck, fill with wood, seal, add the second on top of the first, fill with wood, seal.
Push from wood shed to back door.
When wood is needed step outside, open container, grab a couple pieces & reseal.

Works for me

 

[Vic99]

For the past few days I have heard a "reh reh reh" sound coming from some pine that I have. Having trouble describing it exactly . . . reminds me of a twisting noise, if that makes any sense. I wonder if that is powder post beetles. It's actually quite loud and sometimes the dog notices.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Vic- look for little wood fiber piles rather than powder. That's the mark of this big bug that looks like an Asian longhorned beetle, but I think it's a Northeastern longhorned beetle (or something). I have them in my downed pine in the yard and my pine piles just up the road from ya.

 

[Dexter]

Occasionally we see ha-yooj beetles around here which may be our version of the beetles described above. A couple of years ago, when talking to the local timber harvester guy about tree removal (for fire danger mitigation), we spotted one of these very large bugs with antennae longer than its body. It is relevant to note that our elderly mother was present.

Me: Oh, look Dan, there's one of those bizarre huge beetles. Whad'ya call those things, anyway?

Dan: Oh yeah...those don't cause any harm. We (lumber guy types) call'em "Stump Somethings."

John (my brother): Wow, they're big. I see'em now and then. Why do you call'em "Stump Somethings?"

Dan (looking at my mother): 'Cuz I can't say what we really call'em.

 

[Beanscoot]

Red cedar that I have cut down fresh has gotten thoroughly infested with the PPBs after stacking. They really seem to like it. There is also evidence of heavy infestations in a lot of my (Douglas fir) floor joists and some of the subfloor, of my house. This seems like old infestations though, and now thinking about it, I wonder if it was started from a few hand hewn cedar beams in the basement. They still have bark on two sides.

The house infestation seems to be inactive though. If there's a lot of stomping around upstairs then some dust will come out but this is probably old dust (I hope!).