The wood was cheap - I'm paying the price now...help?

[Nathan Conner]

So I'm always on the lookout for good wood deals. I found some fantastic Myrtle a couple of months ago - up to 16/4, some boards 15' long by 12" wide. Gorgeous grain and nice curl, some beautifully quited pieces. I've been rubbing my hands in anticipation every time I go down to the shop - admiring the pile, hand-planing some pieces and wiping down with mineral spirits.

I bought it a few months ago from a mill ad on Craigslist. Guy was going out of business and had these that had been sitting around for 20+ years. He took about 1.50 a foot, delivered! for about 400 feet.

I have been taking a few weeks off since the last big project, and I went down this morning to poke around the shop for a bit and saw something that quickly ruined my whole morning.

BUGS!

There are powder post beetles SWARMING on this myrtle. (Google images tells me so...never have had them before) I must have killed 100 adults, flipping pieces over to find more holes and more adults wandering around on them. It looks like there are 6 or 7 pieces that are the roots of the problem - I'd planed them all down and milled all the larger pieces, and recall zero signs of holes or infestation, but the weather's been warming up, and now...crap. There are about 6 or 8 pieces of this stuff that are pretty much ruined.

Any opinions on what I do? I saw one on a piece of plywood nearby, and two on a piece of cherry. This myrtle is near my main supply - probably 2k feet of domestics and exotics stacked pretty tightly along one wall of the shop. Luckily the myrtle was too big to go on the stack, but I see lots of frass around it now. Should I be worried about the stack? Should I RUN down there and throw all the myrtle outside? There's too much to coat by hand with borax - what other options should I be considering? Is there a fumigation product I can use? Should I be calling Orkin or someone to come do a one-time treatment of the entire shop?

I've been lucky to have never seen one before in the shop and no signs of them either - it's pretty obvious this stuff is the culprit. Is there some speciation that will save me due to specific species preferring the Myrtle over, say, the pile of mahogany or oak or padauk nearby? There are many thousands of dollars worth of wood down there, and I really, really don't want to lose it all. Really.

Argh.

[Phil Thien]

First, I'd get the wood out of the shop.

I believe boric acid is the main agent used to fight these guys. I'd google it, and spray any exposed framing in your shop area. When they bore out of treated wood, they eat the residue from the BA and die.

I believe that most types of PPB don't like seasoned wood. They like softer, wet wood. Things probably aren't as bad as you imagine.

Kiln drying wood kills the larvae.

[David Helm]

Where exactly is Brush Prairie. If it is on the west side it may not be lyctids. It could be Anobiids. How hard is myrtle. Lyctids eat hardwoods and Anobiids eat softwood. Moisture requirements for Anobiids is 13 to 18 percent. If you saw adults, it probably is Lyctids. If they are Lyctids you need to consult a pest management professional. The Borates work on the Anobiids but , according to my Structural Pest manual they may not work on the Lyctids.

[Nathan Conner]

Hi, David., Phil Great advice. Brush Prairie is in Clark Co - down by Portland. I'll give a pest control agency a call this morning and see what they can do for me, and move the wood post haste!

Thanks!