Help with wood shop floor and bugs!

[Greg McClurg]

Hi all,

I built a shop about 6 years ago and installed a hickory 3/4" t&g floor. It was laid over a concrete floor, then 2x4 sleepers with ridgid insulation in between, then a 3/4" OSB subfloor. I got the hickory from a local flooring manufacturer that sold pallets of "shorts". The problem is that I have pieces that show tiny bug holes. I've replaced about 4 or 5 pieces several years ago and then recently I've discovered a dozen or so pieces that have holes with some obviously having active bugs. The pieces are not all in one area but random throughout the shop. So the question is why is this happening and is there a way to stop it? I don't have any lumber laying around on the floor, but have in the past, but none that had bugs in it that I'm aware of. I'm afraid if this continues I'll have to remove all of the hickory and replace it with something else. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Greg

[bobby milam]

Sorry for the bad news but it seems that they like hickory. It is probably larva that is in the wood. There are a few types and one won't reinfest your wood and the other will. Supposedly they are near impossible to really get rid of as it is hard to get the insecticide into the wood where they are. I did see something about tenting the house to kill them but I doubt that is something that you would consider. There are suppose to be a lot of studies done by universities on them. Maybe you can find one online that could help you.

[Art Mann]

Here is a link describing the most likely culprit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powderpost_beetle

Unfortunately, it sounds like you do not have access to the underside of the floor to do an effective treatment. I suspect there is nothing you can do about it, though a call to a pest control company might provide a solution.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[Greg McClurg]

Thanks Bobby and Art for your response. It does appear that what I have is the powderpost beetle. It may be that at some point I will need to replace the flooring, which I'm not looking forward to, but I certainly don't want risk having them infest anything else!

[Scott T Smith]

Greg, if it were me I would do the following.

1 - remove the flooring asap.
2 - treat all wooden subfloor material with a 15% boric acid solution. Timbor is a product available on e-bay that is made for this purpose.
3 - If your flooring is salvageable, have it heat sterilized in a kiln, or build a chamber and do it yourself. You want to get the core of the flooring boards up to 133F for at least 4 hours.
4. Reinstall the flooring.

PPB eggs typically hatch every 2 years, and since they infect dry wood you want to get them out of there ASAP. They will infect your lumber, so it would be a good idea to heat sterilize any raw stock that you have stored inside the building.

[Jim Andrew]

You need to get something done soon, before they inhabit the lumber in your shop. If you could figure out a way to get the shop hot enough, you could kill them. I'd be tempted to look up a temperature you have to keep the shop at for what number of hours, and use a space heater to heat the shop up. The wood doctor is on forestryforum.com He could tell you what temperature for what time period.
Scott has you informed. Might ask him if you could just heat the shop up.

[Dave Halter]

Watching the American Woodshop and they were showing some restoration at the Orrmont Estate. Apparently it had a powderpost beetle infestation and they used a product called Shell Guard. I googled it and it's used for log homes to kill beetles and termites. That might be something to consider.