bugs in old barn wood

[Scott Welty]

I have these very nice white oak beams: ~4x7. They've been the shop awhile and now I notice little piles of saw dust here and there. Yikes! I've moved them out from the rest of the wood. Hate to lose these. Any way to rid the beams of the bugs?
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[Nelson Howe]

Do a search here on powder post beatles. If you can heat them up to something like 140 internally you can kill them. Otherwise, Timbor will kill them over time. I'm getting ready to have my whole barn treated with the stuff.

Nelson

[Paul Schaefer]

Did some research on this when I had some pine logs I wanted to make lamps out of. Painting the wood with either a laundry borax and boric acid solution or a propylene glycol/boric acid solution will supposedly put enough poison in the wood that the bugs will get a lethal dose while chewing their way out. Human toxicity for all these substances is low.

[peter Joseph]

I've used Timbor successfully before, brushed on liberally. The legs and stretchers of my roubo were made from the treated lumber 7+ years ago and I havent had any problems since.

[Scott Welty]

Timbor looks good but some say Bora Care will penetrate deeper. It's way more expensive too. Any experience?

[Rick Alexander]

I made my own Bora Care (recipe is on this site - search for it). It works great especially if you can get it on the wood while the wood is wet. Otherwise - for sure you will need to make sure you get it on all sides and a good soaking amount. Works but in my case I couldn't get to the back side of the boards and they are still in my wood floor several months after treatment with Bora Care. So I guess what I'm saying for wood that is in place like a standing barn, I'm not that impressed with Bora Care. For wood you are stacking for air drying after milling from the log - works fantastic - appears completely effective so far.