Boxelder bowl and a question

[Doug W Swanson]

289181

Here's a Boxelder bowl I finished last week for a show. It's about 13" across by 5" tall. Finish is a combo of beeswax and mineral oil. Had lots of people oohing and aahing over it but no takers. Then yesterday my wife was talking to a friend who was looking for a present for her parents. It's now going to it's new home!

Which brings me to this: many of the people looking at this bowl asked where the red/pink color comes from in Boxelder. Since I didn't know I looked it up on Google and found it's caused by a fungus. When I told the people it was caused by a fungus they looked at me funny. I assume the fungus in Boxelder is really no different than what causes wood to spalt. Since almost all of my items are meant to be used, do I have anything to worry about by using spalted wood?

[Roger Chandler]

It is my understanding that the red color is introduced by the beetle that bores into the wood..........which might be the cause of introducing the fungus which causes the red streaks......... one of those which came first, the chicken or the egg arguments.

If you google box elder beetle you will see some images of them.........I did one time and found that I had seen those many a time.....once all over the back side of the house! I thought they came from a load of mulch that I had acquired to landscape the flower beds, but perhaps it was from some of the many maples in our area?

[Jamie Donaldson]

Box Elder red is a wound response to an injury to the tree, not often a result of the Ambrosia beetle as in Maples. Humans are not susceptible to fungus from wood sources, as we don't serve as hosts to this variety of fungii. The dust from turning and sanding is much more dangerous to us turners!

[Reed Gray]

Well, I am not exactly sure, but it is not fungus like what causes spaulting. Those color pigments are permanent, unlike the pink in Box Elder which turn brown after a while. I don't think it is caused by the Box Elder beetles but the beetles do have a similar color scheme. I had thought it was a bacterial, enzyme, or tree infection type of thing...

robo hippy

[Roger Chandler]

This some info on the the box elder beetle: http://npic.orst.edu/pest/boxelder.html



According to what I have read, they do have larve and nymph forms and infest maple and sometimes ash trees.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Boxelder bugs and Ambrosia beetles are 2 entirely different critters.