Pest identification and treatment

[Shines]

I have been working on my latest project and come across 5 (so far) of these little critters having a meal at my expense.

Any way I can remove them effectively short of digging them all out and causing more damage to my timber? Apologies for the iPhone photo but they are a nearly white coloured body. shot doesn't accurately represent colour.

http://shines.smugmug.com/Other/Camera-Awesome-Photos/i-dnFGmjb/0/L/CA08041217014094-L.jpg

I have been lucky enough to find them near the surface allowing me to just grab them and feed them to the local magpies.

There are a few holes still that I reckon there are more still in there.

Cheers.

Scott

[_fly_]

I had the same little bugger in some grey gum I got from a friend.
I could hear them eating when I went into the shed at 1am.
I then scraped all the bark off and there were tracks everywhere under the bark, complete coverage, actually looks nice, but they also bored into the timber.
I have left it outside where I hope the cold will kill them off and the ants can eat them out while I wait for the timber to dry out properly. My 1 metre pieces must have had 50-60 in each piece.

[Shines]

Timber starts to look like Swiss cheese with that many in there. So far the best success I have had is by using a drill carefully and then a bit of galv tie wire to dig the bastards out. Persistence pays in my case as they are all being removed. I must have dug out about 10 in the last hour of swearing at my timber.

[issatree]

HI Scott,
It is what I know of as a " Witchity Grub " & they just love Gum Trees of most kinds.
The Aboriginal People like to eat them, & they are very good Bait for Fishing.