Death watch.

[Jason Pettitt]

I pocketed an ash tree after doing a spot of gardening for a neighbor and earmarked it for a little green woodwork. Took a look at it this morning and some of the larger pieces are covered in frass and little holes. The beasticles responsible look like Death Watch Beetle rather than common furniture beetle.

Google tells me that Death Watch is a fussy eater, preferring churches and stately homes - neither of which can be found within stones throwing distance - and not bothering with residential buildings; they prefer very large, damp, hardwood timbers. So I'm currently inclined not to panic - I've got my special stash of planks and offcuts that I don't want to lose, but nothing very large or damp.

But if anyone knows any better I'd appreciate some alternative opinion.

 

[wizer]

You've actually just reminded me that I had a problem with some sort of beetle last year.

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/is-t ... 35473.html

I completely forgot about it and will have to go check if it's decimated my stash :shock:

 

[Jason Pettitt]

I'm now thinking that the little critters are furniture beetle

Thanks for the link to t'other thread - it does seem limited to the bark - so I'll strip and burn it and then cross my fingers.

 

[wobblycogs]

Our house has had numerous infestations of death watch and common furniture beetle over the years. DWB clearly causes far more damage than CFB; where DWB have been whole beams have disapeared. Well disapeared is unfair, there is a lot of dust / frass and a very sharp honey comb of wood left behind. Looking at the holes left behind you couldn't mistake CFB for DWB as the latters holes are much larger.

From my reading as long as you keep the wood good and dry you will generally prevent any infestation as they don't feeding on dry wood. Once they are in the timber though it would seem it's pretty much impossible to get the little blighters (at least when they are in house timbers). Apparently most treatments don't really penetrate into the wood more than a couple of mm so the beattles go on chomping away at the wood until it's time to emerge. As they emerge they eat some treated wood and die but by that point a lot of damage has already been done. The treatment does prevent future infestations though.

 

[Jason Pettitt]

Right now I'm thinking that it's a different critter entirely - Leperisinus sp. - the ash bark beetle. So I'm inclined not to panic once more. I've an entomologist friend on the case - so I'll see what he comes up with.

 

[milkman]

From my reading as long as you keep the wood good and dry you will generally prevent any infestation as they don't feeding on dry wood. Once they are in the timber though it would seem it's pretty much impossible to get the little blighters (at least when they are in house timbers). Apparently most treatments don't really penetrate into the wood more than a couple of mm so the beattles go on chomping away at the wood until it's time to emerge. As they emerge they eat some treated wood and die but by that point a lot of damage has already been done. The treatment does prevent future infestations though.

They have a ten year+ lifecycle so you may get further 'crops' of beetle emerging from the infected wood after sorting whatever damp problem encouraged them in the first place

If its older house timbers, ie oak, chestnut or elm then no, treatment won't penetrate easily.

Best policy, keep it dry and be very nice to your spiders as they are the biggest predators of the buggers, and are free too!

 

[Setch]

I stashed a decent load of green ash a few years back, under a tarp on the patio, and it ended up with the bark totally riddled with beetles. They made no impression on the timber, and I've since succesfully dried it without any sign of life since (a couple of years).

I'm told ash should be debarked asap because of this habit.

 

[tekno.mage]

I quite often find ash in our firewood pile suffering from a similar problem - mostly the tunnels are confined to the bark and a thin layer just beneath - the wood inside is fine (I know this as I have often snaffled bits of ash from the firewood pile to use for woodturning). I think the "ash bark beetle" prefers dead but slightly green (ie damp) ash bark as our infested logs don't get any worse once they have dried out. The beetles don't seem interested in dry wood or damp wood that isn't ash!

The common furniture beetle, however, has been happy to munch through most wood/plywood/paint/plastic laminate (!!) dry or otherwise. At least that is the evidence I've seen in the barns where I live. The CFBs are dead now - we treated all the timbers with borax - and no new holes appearing.

tekno.mage

 

[Benchwayze]

Is Borax all you need? And is it applied in solution or sprinkled? As per ant-killer.


John
:?:

 

[tekno.mage]

Yes, plain Borax dissolved in warm water will work (dissolve as much Borax as you can in whatever the amount of water -you don't need a saturated solution), but it doesn't penetrate the wood all that deeply so may need reapplication for a few years.

However, in areas where children & animals (especially cats) don't have access, mix the Borax solution with the same amount of cheap ethylene glycol (sp?) anti-freeze and apply that solution instead - the antifreeze will carry the Borax deeper into the wood and it also doesn't evaporate as quickly as the plain Borax solution so a single application has a more more penetrating and long lasting effect.

The warning regarding cats, other animals & children is because despite antifreeze being poisonous it tastes slightly sweet - hence the attraction to children who may lick their fingers after touching the damp antifreeze on the wood. Cats are fatally attracted to antifreeze. They will drink it if given the opportunity and it kills them. It may be the same with dogs and other pets too.

BTW the Borax solution also imparts a small degree of fire protection to the timber you treat with it. It's Borax solution that's used to fireproof stage drapes and hangings!

tekno.mage

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi Tek,

I didn't know anti-freeze was fatal to pets. I would have thought they wouldn't be tempted to try it! At worst though I imagined it might get them drunk, and of course I know it isn't any good for us. So I wouldn't leave any lying around!

I hope my car radiator doesn't ever leak, because there is a local cat who has made a regular habit of sheltering under the Volvo. It's also venturd into my workshop, and I once found him curled up on the shavings underneath the table of my Planer/thicknesser. Good job I noticed him as I wanted to use the power feed!

Cheers for the info

John
Regards
John

 

[Losos]

I didn't know anti-freeze was fatal to pets. I would have thought they wouldn't be tempted to try it! At worst though I imagined it might get them drunk, and of course I know it isn't any good for us. So I wouldn't leave any lying around!

I hope my car radiator doesn't ever leak, because there is a local cat who has made a regular habit of sheltering under the Volvo. It's also venturd into my workshop, and I once found him curled up on the shavings underneath the table of my Planer/thicknesser. Good job I noticed him as I wanted to use the power feed!

Hi John, as a general rule if it does humans harm it will do the same for dogs and cats.

While on the subject of anti-freeze (Sorry this is 'off topic' but I hope people will understand why) another product which is fatal for dogs is chocolate, in this case it is OK for humans as us chocoholics know well but please keep it away from dogs.

 

[Jason Pettitt]

Just to be clear Ash Bark Beetle is harmless (unless you've developed an exciting and previously unheard of requirement for untainted ash bark) ~ no need for treatments.