While exploring logging roads in Oregon’s coast range one bored day last winter, I scavenged a madrone burl from a logging site. It’s about the size of a large watermelon. After letting it dry for about 6 months (it was fairly dry when I found it) I cut it into 1″ slabs then stickered it to dry more. It has some amazing color and figure, almost bright pink.
Anyway, I noticed some worm holes the next day with fresh sawdust near them. In fear of all my other expensive figured stock being ravenged by worms, I quickly moved it to the back side of the house. I thought about the time my father-in-law was building a hope chest out of myrtlewood, worm dessert, and had to put off completing it. He set the project aside and after a few months when he went back to complete it, worms had literally hollowed out his boards, and had to be scrapped.
What can I do to get rid of these worms in my burl? I’ve heard of freezing, but I’m not sure what my wife would think of me taking out the peas and gardenburgers and filling the feezer with my wormy burl.
Jeffrey
Replies
What about baking them in the oven. I think I can remember a thread here that suggested that idea.
Scott C. Frankland
Newfoundland Wood Worker
Your msg brought a laugh! One winter day I found a dry cedar log and brought it home. I cut out several slabs to use for clocks. I kept the best one which was full of holes. After finishing I hung it in the den over the fireplace. Well, one early spring day at work I got a call from my wife. Seems the house was full of large wood bees! About 2 dozen had came out of hibernation and were terrorizing the household. I had sold the other slabs and have no idea what happened with them.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy
PlaneWood
Freezing works -- do you know any butchers? Another thing that works is any petroleum product. Liquid Gold has been used successfully by a couple of people I know. Apply it, check back in a couple of days, if you see more sawdust, apply again. Chances are, the next time you check you won't see any evidence. There used to be an auction house in Seattle that would (accidentally?) bring back a pieces from Europe that was carrying these critters. What a drag! But the Liquid Gold worked.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hmmm. Water mellon sized. Maybe you can nuke it. You can probably get it in and out of the microwave without being noticed. The micro waves heat the interior of the wood so that it shouldnt take too long and you are less likely to crack it from uneven drying that conventional oven treatment.
BJ
Put it in a plastic bag outside and set off one of those aerosol insect bombs, tie up the bag and leave for a couple of days.
Try dry ice. Put it in a garbage can, drop a chunk or two of dry ice in and cover. Leave undisturbed for a few days. Similar trick will keep wheat clear of bugs for long-term storage.
Here's a link to an article on eliminating insects in wood - http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page158.html
Paul
F'burg, VA
The only way that freezing works, to my knowledge, is if you can do it super cold, super fast...otherwise the bugs can expel the water in their system as they feel the cold coming on. That's how it was explained to me by a conservation research scientist when I worked in conservation in a museum. I'm definitely not an expert, but I've never seen anything since to suggest that freezing in a home freezer or something similar could work. We used a big industrial freeze dryer.
I know chemical treatments aren't used much anymore by museums....the stuff that works is highly restricted, even for pros....the stuff you can get doesn't work. They're looking at high temperature and low temperature treatments, and other treatments involving carbon dioxide, nitrogen etc. It's a tricky problem, and it depends an what the bugs are, what stages they are at, etc. Preventing infestation in the first place, and isolation if you do get one are the best things for regular folks. Here's a link to one site that has some info if you poke around searching under 'insects'; other similar orgs in the U.K and the U.S, Australia, etc. would have more too.
http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/main_e.shtml
cabinetmaker/college instructor. Cape Breton, N.S
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