Killing Ambrosia Beetles

[Jon Kurtz]

I just purchased an ambrosia maple log and have cut it up into sections. I am curious as to whether or not I need to treat the wood with an insecticide in order to prevent the Beatles from coming out of the wood and potentially attacking trees on my lot. Does anybody have any experience in dealing with this? Appreciate any advice.

[Barry McFadden]

I don't know what size you cut it into but any wood I use from the bush I cut into foot long pieces or smaller and put in the microwave for a bit to make sure nothing is living inside of it.

[peter Joseph]

Jon, I would since it is pretty simple to do so. Get some powdered Tim Bor and mix up the solution in a spray bottle. Saturate the pieces you intend to work with and let them adequately dry. It works for powder post beetles, ambrosia beatles and several others/

[Jon Kurtz]

Jon, I would since it is pretty simple to do so. Get some powdered Tim Bor and mix up the solution in a spray bottle. Saturate the pieces you intend to work with and let them adequately dry. It works for powder post beetles, ambrosia beatles and several others/

Thank you!

[John K Jordan]

I just purchased an ambrosia maple log and have cut it up into sections. I am curious as to whether or not I need to treat the wood with an insecticide in order to prevent the Beatles from coming out of the wood and potentially attacking trees on my lot. Does anybody have any experience in dealing with this? Appreciate any advice.

I know Timbor is widely used in certain places in the lumber industry. I did see that any treatment should be done before the wood is sealed in any way.

This is the Timbor label, indicating it will kill insects living in the wood:
For remedialcontrol of wood attacking organisms or for the protection of wood against future
infestations, two applications of a 10% liquid solution are normally required
www.biconet.com/crawlers/infosheets/TimborLabel.pdf
From a quick search I did not see anything from the USDA or researchers about this but you could look deeper.


I see a lot of info on the web focused on preventing the spread in live trees, for example:
There is no insecticide for treating granulate ambrosia beetles once they are inside a tree...
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/insects/preventing-ambrosia-beetles.htm
They don't make it clear if an insecticide on the surface will kill emerging adults.

The threat to other trees is evidently seasonal:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5349704.pdf

This seems to suggest they are not interested in infecting dry wood:
http://www.ladybugpestcontrol.com/Ambrosia-Beetles-Live-in-Lumber-and-Your-Home-Mesa-AZ.html

Some suggest that products like Timbor will prevent beetles from boring INTO wood but will they kill emerging adult insects? Here is some advice (from those selling insecticides):
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/how-to-get-rid-of-wood-boring-beetles-a-421.html
http://www.pestproducts.com/timbor.htm

JKJ

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Insects are pretty tough creatures, just sticking a piece of wood in a microwave for a bit isn’t going to kill them.

The US forest Service has done test and evaluated tests from others, the way to kill insects in the wood, it has to reach a core temperature of 56 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, and it seems that a few species do even survive this, so now they are looking at 60 degrees and for 60 minutes, so you see a short time of heat like that will not kill all those little bugs.

https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/disturbance/invasive_species/firewood_treatment/

Insecticides are usually not very good for us humans, and I’m not about to turn wood that has been drenched in it.

What I have done a few times is wood that showed bug infestation, to double wrap in plastic bags and added a handful of Mothballs in there, then set it away for several months to half a year and better, and never had anything survive that, not very Scientific, I know, but it never ever showed any bug activity after that .

[Barry McFadden]

[QUOTE=Leo Van Der Loo;2728205]Insects are pretty tough creatures, just sticking a piece of wood in a microwave for a bit isn’t going to kill them.

The US forest Service has done test and evaluated tests from others, the way to kill insects in the wood, it has to reach a core temperature of 56 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, and it seems that a few species do even survive this, so now they are looking at 60 degrees and for 60 minutes, so you see a short time of heat like that will not kill all those little bugs.

Well after about 2-3 min in the microwave the wood is way over 56 degrees and by the time it cools off it's probably about 10-15 min. Two or three times like that and nothing could survive. I've done this to pieces that had a little pile of sawdust on the floor beside them and never see anymore after doing it.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

For thinner wood that could very well work Barry, but I was thinking about the thicker pieces of wood like what the OP is talking about, and the fed’s are thinking about wood that is to be used for pallets etc and larger thicker wood.

[Barry McFadden]

The OP didn't mention the size of the wood but I frequently do pieces up to 4 or 5 inches in diameter in the microwave and it works well...

[Leo Van Der Loo]

The OP didn't mention the size of the wood but I frequently do pieces up to 4 or 5 inches in diameter in the microwave and it works well...

Maybe you should go tell the USA feds dep that they don’t need to heat the wood for 60 minutes at a temp of 60 degrees, just stick it in a macrowave for a couple of times a few minutes at the time as you do ???.

Oh the OP said he just bought a log and cut it into sections, I assume the log was bigger than a couple inches :D

[Glenn C Roberts]

Think the temp was meant to be 56 degrees Celsius: 132.8 F

[Chris Hachet]

I have had very good luck just waiting until my wife leaves for several hours, dropping wood in the oven, and keeping it at about 175 for about 3-4 hours. Of course I am forgetful, so the next morning the inevitable question is "why is our oven full of rough cut lumber?"

I try to seal up the end grain before I do this, and have never had any problems. YMMV. (other than marital ones...)

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Think the temp was meant to be 56 degrees Celsius: 132.8 F

That is right Glenn, temperature are given in Celsius, and 56C is the international agreed to temperature, but now they seem to want to go to 60 C.

With the latest test, they came to the conclusion that some insects did survive the 56C heat.

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