Check your selfbow staves! (Pics Added!)

[Osagetree]

I walked by my drying rack yesterday and saw the tale, tale signs of wood borers!        

I cut all my wood with an old handsaw and carry everything out,, it's tough work and these little guys might make it all a waste of time! I am really mad about this and got to do what I can to prevent further damage. They seem to just be in the hickory, but if they're there, they may be in my prized osage too.

I'll get some pic's up later!

[Danny Roberts]

I know what 'ya mean. I had those critters get in some great looking hickory a while back. I had to go down several rings to get out of the damage. Good thing it's easy to follow hickory rings. As for the osage, I don't have to worry about that because there isn't any around these parts. Some maybe I'll load up and take off to Illinois, where my brother's father-in-law lives, to get some. I've made a 63# mulberry flatbow, which I've been told is a lot like osage. If it is I can't wait to get some. This mulberry works and shoots great ! I was thinking 'bout your cattail quiver last night fishing at my dad's pond, standing by a bunch of it. Thanks for all those build a longs. I'm going to have to try a quiver this summer. Take care and good luck with everything.
DR

[BMN]

Man that stinks. I've heard that these pests tend to just attack the sap wood in osage. Is that true? Maybe the heartwood is ok.    I'd like to see the pics. I've never seen these creatures and I'd like to learn what to look for. Can you treat the staves with some type of insect repellent to keep this from happening?

Bill

[onemississipp]

They will tear hickory up, they will get in your osage if the sap wood is left on it. They will go through the sap wood and into the heart wood on osage, I had heard they will not go far into the heart wood. I have found they will go into the heart wood as deep as 1/4".

So get the sap wood of the osage and spray the hickory with your favorite bug killer!

I would use a non staining indoor/outdoor kind.

[onemississipp]

BMN,
  You will know when you walk out to the wood pile and you see small piles of really fine sawdust under your staves.

Here is some more info with pics!

  http://entomology.unl.edu/ornamentals/pestprofiles/roundheaded_borers.htm

 http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/catsubject.cfm?cat=7

[BMN]

Thanks for the info onemississipp. I guess I need to check the few osage staves I have. They have been kept inside but I do still have the bark and sap wood on.

[wingnut]

They will eat the heartwood on the osage and go right through to the other side.  Take the bark off of the osage when you get it and seal the back and ends.  They won't get in and your wood will be safe.  If you have time, take the sap wood too and make sure to seal the back.

Mike

[Osagetree]

Take off the sap wood,,, yeah,,, you try taking the sap wood off 20 osage staves and if you can,,, you'll be one big bad mother!

Danny, glad that thread still holds some memories for you! Nice complement,,, thanks!

Hickory on the bottom, perssimon in the middle and osage on top. All of this on a rack off the ground, in a screened in room.
This is what makes you a little sick when you see it.
 
 

Here you can see one of the little bugers and the holes they can gouge out of even the hardest woods. The end with the black dot is the head.
 

Okay I pulled the hickory from the rack and stripped of the bark. 3 staves with damage on the right. The others on the left were okay, no damage at all!
 
Even 9 of these hickory's were tough work for a desk jockey like me!
 

I cut these staves in January and feel they still may check so I gave them a coat of shellac.
 

I also pulled the rest of the wood off the rack to look for wood borer sign and found none at all. I turned the bark side of the staves up so I can monitor them for the next coule months. Before laying them back on the rack, I gave them a insecticide treatment.
 

I'll keep a close eye on them and if I see any more sign I wil have no choice but to strip off all the bark and wood as fast as I can.

[Eric Krewson]

I left a half osage log under my deck for a while. When I checked it out powder post beetles had invaded it. I stripped the bark off the log and attacked each hole with a propane torch, must have been over a dozen of them. I scorched the wood pretty well at each hole and set the log back to see if the little burgers would continue to leave dust piles under the log.

Apparently my unconventional treatment killed every one of them.

The down side is I stored some more wood in my basement that had been attacked by the same beetles. The beetles migrated to my floor joists and it took a $600 treatment to get rid of them.

[Ted Fry]

A good way to prevent them with out using pesticides is to spray with a mixture of Borax and water out of your pump sprayer or hand sprayer, this will keep off the bugs with out poisoning yourself later when you work with the wood.

[Osagetree]

Eric, that had to suck!

Ted, borax! Now that is a good idea!

[bentpole]

Hey Joe! I'm glad all those babies weren't ruined! Looks like you have some work to do!

[Eric Krewson]

The floor joist treatment was a mixture of borax in a solvent.

[Adam Keiper]

Sorry to hear about the borers.  I'm all too familiar with them, too.  I once cut a hackberry tree on the edge of my yard.  I split it, stripped the bark, and left the stave on my picnic table.  The NEXT DAY, the staves were crawling with tiny, tiny black bugs.  The staves had started to check, too, so I decided to let them have at it.  Within a week, the wood was riddled with holes.

Erik, I didn't know those buggers would go after dry lumber.  Good to know.

And Ted, That borax tip is FANTASTIC!  I won't use poisons, especially since I have kids in the house who may be exposed to it.  Super easy to apply, I imagine, since you could mix it in an ordinary plastic plant mister.  Thanks.

[onemississipp]

I didn't know what Borax was so I had to look it up...It sure has a lot of uses.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax

[Sal]

Kill those borers!  Kill them all!    :mad:  

I hate them almost as much as I hate the bugs that eat feathers.  

It looks like most of your wood will be salvaged.

[Osagetree]

I think it is moths that are the feather eaters???