Evidence of wood worms...good thing or bad?

[Mark Norman]

Some of you will recall the walnut burl pieces I was blessed with.
Well, There is evidence of wood worms in the large pieces and I checked again today and they are busy boring holes in my burls. I know that eventualy they could destroy the pieces but in the mean time they may well be adding charachter to em. Should I be worried and cut em up asap and attempt to erradicate the lil buggers or would it be ok to let em sit for a few more weeks?

You can see the evidence in these pics:







The holes look to be about an 1/8" or so but they are turning the wood to saw dust. I have seen one of the lil buggers that came out to die and it was about 3/8" long, sorry no pics of it.

I have allready cut up the two smallest pieces and did find one worm in it but I am in no hurry to cut up the others, I need a bigger chain saw.



I think I know the answer to my question already but wanted others experienced opinion.

Thanks

[David DeCristoforo]

You need to get those milled as soon as you can and not just because of worms. If you leave them to dry like that they are going to start checking like crazy and all you are going to have is some worm infested firewood.

[george wilson]

In the old days,walnut stumps were weighted down and submerged in a pond for some time. It helped keep the wood from checking when finally dried.

[Mark Norman]

<sharpening my chain saw>

Thats what I was thinking. even if the ends are sealed and they are under a tarp. I need to make em smaller pieces, I'm just nervous about where to make the first cut(s).

I think I'll attack the big one this weekend.

[Mark Norman]

In the old days,walnut stumps were weighted down and submerged in a pond for some time. It helped keep the wood from checking when finally dried.

Dont give me any ideas george....
I have a pond down the hill I could roll em into but getting em back up the hill would be a chore....Hmmm maybee a winch?

[Barry Vabeach]

Mark, I have a similar problem, though mostly with milled lumber. The most effective treatment I am aware of is heating the wood to above 130 degrees and holding it there for at least an hour. I found a reference to a study done in the 30's and they suggested 2 1/2 hours for 1 inch lumber to get the internal temperature high enough to kill the bugs - I have no idea what temp would work with something that big. I just heated up some dogwood limbs I had to kill the bugs - they were about a year old - the ones I heated to 150 -160, and maybe higher, got some real bad splits. The other ones I heated in the 140 range and didn't split as bad, though they were maybe 2 inches in diameter.

[Caleb Larru]

powder post beetles. I hate those things. They can ruin good wood in no time.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Black Plastic Tarp in full sun for a week should do it.
Ya need an internal Temp all the way through th3e wood to hit 130 - 150 F

Then use a Boric acid aqueous solution to treat the wood.
You can make it yourself by boiling water and adding Boric acid till no more will dissolve into solution.

Boric acid is pretty much harmless to mammals. It's commonly used as an eyewash.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I would get rid of them. Putting wood into a garbage bag, sealing it up, thinking they would suffocate and die DOES NOT WORK. In fact, it makes them HAPPY! They are hard to get rid of. You could try and spray it very well on all sides with some insecticide and covering it with a tarp. You'll need to keep the new bugs from finding your stash too. The problem is that they have eggs and larvae IN the tunnels they create, so you'll have to kill off a few generations.

NICE wood by the way......

[Mark Norman]

I plan on cutting it up this weekend. I need to kill the worms.

After cutting it up I will place in black plastic bags in the sun for a day or several with a squirt of malathion in the bag and hope that does it. If the heat don't kill em the poison should. All I need now is a nice hot sunny day. Too bad its rainy and overcast