# Powder Post Beetles in White Oak Disappoitment



## rsdowdy (Aug 25, 2009)

So I have about 600bf of white oak lumber that has been sitting in a screened porch area for 6 years that is rough cut lumber. I have been waiting for the day to start working it when I had my garage cleared of enough space, had the right equipment, and had enough time to start milling it.

My garage was under seige for years as it was full of my kids stuff and other kids stuff that we were workign with. My wife has a lovely heart and we share our home and our lives with those that are in desperate need. So my wants of a woodshop had been on hold for a number of years. About 2 years ago the last of my children left and three of our foster chidren moved out. (We do unpaid fostering to try and help 17-23s get stabalized and then moved out to RL with the skills they need to make a living.) So I bought a table saw and then we had another foster that moved in and filled out the garage. Now they are gone and I actually have the semblence of a shop, tablesaw, dewalt 13" planer, 8" jointer, chop saw, one of those frugral Harbor Freight 2hp dust collectors, and hand tools including a 2 routers, one mounted in an unfished router table. I have been building a few odds and ends projects with Box Store lumber but now I am finally ready to start milling wood!

And as the title states…I mill the first top piece tonight and go figure…powerpost beetles. How disheartening! I mill a portion of the second board below the first and find that the beetle holes are on the portion that was uncovered by the top board. The wood is just lovely though so now I guess I need to buy some boracare and treat all of it? It's like roaches right? See one, you have a hundred?

Also, should I mill the lumber and then spray, or spray on the unmilled lumber? And if I don't see any infestation on the 3rd board besides the edges, should I spray the boards in the stack like they are in now, or treat them all individually? I would hate to have the beetle problem move indoors or into the reast of my store bought lumber in my garage. And last, how long after spraying can I mill and use the lumber?

Thanks for your responses.
Royal


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

Unfortunately, spraying the lumber now will not kill the larvae and eggs inside the boards. The borate spray is only a surface treatment that will prevent any future infestation. The one that you have got now, you have got now. The only surefire way is to heat the lumber to a critical internal temperature of about 140 degrees for a set number of hours. This would require a kiln, but I believe that it would be worth it if you can find a kiln in your area.


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## DaveDelo (Jun 23, 2010)

I posted a thread a couple weeks ago about my experience with PPB and some cherry rough sawn I had purchased. For my piece of mind, I went the kiln route to sterilize the wood.


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## Nomad62 (Apr 20, 2010)

The best thing to do is get all of it in a kiln, as well as any other wood you have laying around. If that is not possible, then treat the wood with a borate solution that has a glycol base to it, a product I have just learned about; it will penetrate the wood about 3" according to the manufacturer. Spray it rough cut, no sense in wasting energy surfacing it first. The big problem is the eggs, they are invisable and you will not get rid of them without doing one of these two options. It will be best to spray them after a kiln job if you do get one, but that kiln job will absolutely kill everything, a claim that is not quite so proveable with the spray. You will need to do all the wood you have.


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## rsdowdy (Aug 25, 2009)

Thanks for the advice. I'll try to locate a kiln and the time to have it done properly. I'm located in Williamson GA (about an hour south/southwest of Atlanta) if anyone here has a suggestion to a favorite person to use. It was just disheartening last night after waiting so long to get started and walaa…waddaknow. Heh. Well, the wood is absolutly beautiful except for the damaged areas and I want to save as much of it as I can.

Thanks again.
Royal


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## MoshupTrail (Aug 11, 2011)

If you are ambitious, try this:
http://woodscience.vt.edu/about/extension/vtsolar_kiln/

You'll need to do some math to scale it down but they do say it's scaleable.


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## SASmith (Mar 22, 2010)

Check out DaveDelo thread on the subject.
http://lumberjocks.com/topics/30639
This is a DIY project, no hauling to a commercial kiln required.
You could build it to do ~100 BF if you want to keep it small.
Good luck.


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## rsdowdy (Aug 25, 2009)

cr1 - You are a funny man. I'll remember that.

SASmith - I think I'll try Dave Delo's cook box idea. It's easier for me to build a box and heat them up than to take the wook to a kiln. looks like a simple enough idea. I have reflective plywood left over from when we built our house (plywood with aluminiumfoil glued to one side of it) and this looks like the perfect project for it. Go to the big box on my way home tonight to get the lamps.

Moshup - Thats a nice idea but a bit too time ambitious for me at this time. I would love to grow my own tree from a seedling, chop it down, mill the wood from start to finish and create something from it, but now I'm just lucky enough to be able to throw things together with glue and then try to decide what it is.

Thanks for the advice all,
Royal

Hey…if I had these beetles on my porch, should I be doing some serious spraying around my house?


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## DaveDelo (Jun 23, 2010)

http://www.palletenterprise.com/articledatabase/view.asp?articleID=2890

http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/e609powderpost.html

http://cipm.ncsu.edu/IPMtext/chap7.pdf

http://www.adamspestcontrol.com/pest_info/powder-post-beetles

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7418.html

Not sure how or if these links will show up correctly or not but just copy them to your browser if they don't…...but the information gathered from these and other sources made "me" conclude the kiln idea was the way for "me" to proceed. Biggest factor to me was the larval period for these bugs being up to 12 years. I wanted to steilize the wood once and not ever have to worry about it again.


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

rsdowdy,

I sent you a PM about a kiln option.

Danny


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## rsdowdy (Aug 25, 2009)

Dave, great info! Thanks!

The links came up just fine for me. Looking at the info, I do have the true powerpost beetles. I am going to make a small kiln to heat up all my wood from now on, just to be sure. It says the beetles are attracted to the light and can fly, so I am sure they were attracted to the lights on my screened porch and found a lovely lunch spot. I burn a light in my garage 24/7 as well, so need to check the rest of my wood for critters. You just don't know how it touches me to be able to feed the poor and hungry.

Danny, thanks for the PM, I sent you a reply.

Royal


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