Thread: borers in red cedar

crazy idea but put everything in large heavy duty garden waste type plastic bag, add can of Raid 3 month cockroach killer hit the button, seal the bag.

Would be wise idea doing this outside away from anything in case bag bursts, but I used 2 cans under a 40' container to eradicate a bee hive.

Good Morning Rob

Less dramatic than Tonto's suggestion, but a proven solution:

Just paint on plenty of very wet coats of turps, forcing as much as possible into holes and end grain until it stops absorbing. Then, while super-saturated, stick it in a plastic bag and seal tight. Wait two or three weeks. QED.


Cheers

Graeme

How big is your freezer? That'll work if you want to go chemical free.

I'm no entomologist, Rob, but those holes you show look more like termite galleries than borer holes, to me. The guilty parties may have long since departed and the cocoons you found might be some more innocent arthropod that thought they'd found a nice quiet place to hide while metamorphosing. Until some great monster shoved an ice-pick through them, that is.

If you choose to launch a chemical attack, a bit of warmth certainly helps. A month or two back I noticed some fine frass in a drawer of my tool cupboard. Pin-hole borers! The little beasts had gotten into the framework supporting the upper drawers. I tried an experiment - got some of that 'moth paper' for household cupboards & put that in the bottom drawer. That was just before the longest run of above-30 days we've ever had, & some of those days were far too warm in the shed for me! For the first week or so, whenever I opened the cupboard I'd get the sneezes, so felt sure something not too pleasant for man or beast was circulating in there. Whether it was the heat alone or the moth paper, there has been no more indication of wood-munching, so fingers crossed, I've nipped that lot in the bud...

Cheers,

I think heat treatment may be a viable option. If you can heat up the timber to 48 degrees for at least 150 minutes, all living pests are bound to die (protein starts to disintegrate over 42 degrees). The process needs less time if the temperature is higher, e.g. 55 degrees for 60 minutes. If there is a sawmill somewhere in your area, ask them if you can put your wood into their dry kiln.

Originally Posted by IanW

I'm no entomologist, Rob, but those holes you show look more like termite galleries than borer holes, to me. The guilty parties may have long since departed and the cocoons you found might be some more innocent arthropod that thought they'd found a nice quiet place to hide while metamorphosing.

I'd bet on termites too.

mick

Thanks for the replies gents, I disassembled the carcass a couple of days ago and found that the same borers had ruined the sides and some other parts of the unit. So with great regret, it has gone to the dump...