Thread: Boorer treatment in timber

I think there is a product in Bunnies that you can use for borers. I have never used this so not sure how to apply.

Good Morning Glen

First decision is whether that small piece of timber is of sufficient merit that it warrants the efforts needed. Or cut your loss and start again.

The phrase "... boorer holes starting to appear..." suggests that there are live, active borers in the timber and these must be killed. Commercially this is usually done by pressure treatment or infusion; other methods such as paints and sprays are rarely effective because they cannot penetrate into the wood where the critters live.

Pressure treatment requires access to a pressure chamber; I presume you do not have one - enough said.

For infusion treatment just paint the wood heavily with insecticide and while still saturated and thoroughly wet wrap it tightly in heavy plastic and then seal all edges with duct tape - it needs to be airtight. Then let the chemical vapours infuse into the timber and attack those borers for at least two weeks - longer is better.

Finally, to use the wood you need to either hide the bug holes or make them a feature. I like to dress and fine sand such timber, finishing with a final rub with 000 steel wool. Then I wet the timber thoroughly with epoxy thinner - MEK or acetone (this wet-out aids penetration), paint on a coat of clear epoxy - I use WEST or the local fibreglass shops homebrew, wait ten minutes and then squeegy the surface - this forces the epoxy into the holes. Immediately mix and apply more epoxy and repeat process. Continue until all signs of borer holes have disappeared.

With clear finish the borer holes will be visible a slightly darker wiggles. This could be just another coat of epoxy, or you can rub two coats of danish oil to give a finish akin to french polish.

Alternatively, you can hide the holes by just painting the timber.

My experience is that trying to force any sort of putty, bog or paste into borer holes is almost always doomed to failure. It looks good then some of the filler falls out, or you later find holes that you forgot to fill.

Fair Winds

Graeme

There are a lot of unanswered questions that need to be asked before a plan of attack can be decided.
Is it hardwood or softwood? Is the specie known? Is both the heartwood and the sapwood showing holes? If one or the other, which one? Is there any dust being created? Is the dust smooth or gritty when rubbed between finger and thumb?
The reason for the questions is to determin type of borer and if they are coming or going. Some borers are far more destructive than others.

Damn I'm glad all I have to contend with is the occasional woodworm or Death-Watch beetle!

Yep, we're doing it tough in the colonies. Please send more funds.

Homebrand surface spray(insecticide) will keep 'em at bay for a few months...i would think that the slab is probably still 'green'...borers generally don't hang around once the moisture is out of the wood(they feed off the fungai that grow on the tunnel walls,and the fungai only survives when there is sufficent moisture within the wood,normally around 40%...they(borers) are very sensitive to chemicals.....

Originally Posted by rustynail

Please send more funds.

The cheque is in the post (and of course I love you!)

Originally Posted by dr4g0nfly

The cheque is in the post

That's fantastic news, I will keep an eye out for the postman.

Following on from what Mapleman said, you may well find that the wood collapses in several years as most borers have commensal fungi that they excrete inside their tunnels, and not just ones that need high moisture content. I had an armoire that my father killed the borers in using kero & turps, but after 10-15 years with no borers it had turned to mush, only the paint & kero flooded bits held it together.

If the idea of soaking it in stinky chemicals does not appeal (there is a reason the borers die ) then you could have it frozen for several weeks if you have free access to a commercial (or similar) deep freezer - I find that most insects & their eggs can't take a few days at less than zero where they seem able to tolerate 100C happily, but it will take a while for the slab to chill all the way through.