How to treat termites in wood

[Paulishuku]

Hey everyone,

I just got into wood carving and I've been gathering some pine firewood from various family members. Ive just been grabbing random pieces without looking too closely at the wood but when I get home and start preparing the wood to carve I start seeing little holes in spots on the wood. Just about all the pine wood I've collected have been like this.

I'm assuming these hole are termites. So is there anything I should do to treat the wood before actually carving it or would polyurethane good enough to seal the holes after I'm finished carving?

Thanks,
Paul

[susieq]

Hi Paul,
Many things make holes in wood. If the holes are really tiny, about the size of needle pricks or slightly larger, it's probably not termites. They tend to make larger damaged areas of irregular shapes and they can be seen moving in and out of the damaged areas.

Termites are usually white (sometimes a dark grey color) and look like a cigar shaped thing with legs and a head. They are about the size of a medium ant and are very hard to miss..... If they are dry wood termites, they won't leave a mud tube visible but if they are the more common type, subterranean termites, they need to maintain a path into the ground from the infected wood....hence the mud tubes. At a glance, this looks like a raised muddy ridge running from the ground, up the side of a building, even over concrete, to get to the food source (wood). The mud tubes crumble easily and you can see that they are hollow.

I suspect your holes are caused by tiny beetle larva.... There are several threads posted on the forum by people asking how to deal with this. One suggestion was, if the wood is not too large, put it into the microwave for a few seconds. It could be that the larva are long gone and you have nothing more to worry about but a few seconds in the microwave will make sure.

I did this to a santa that I was carving but I "over did" the microwave thing....LOL. No body told me how long to do this for so I figured that since the piece was about the size of a large baking potato, I'd put it in for 4 minutes.... that was almost enough to cause it to burst into flames...I could smell it getting hot. Not only that, it dried out the wood horribly and it was much harder to carve. It was only after I posted the results of what I had done, that I found out it only takes about 20 to 30 seconds or so....
Since you are doing this with pine, make sure there isn't a lot of sap in it.... pine sap is highly flammable.

And on the outside chance that you do have termites, this should take care of them also.....

[Paulishuku]

Hey, thanks for the advice. From reading your description I think your suspicion of beetle larvae might be right. I looked down in the holes and didn't see any tunnels, they're just straight through and I can't find any evidence of mud. There aren't that many holes either. Just a few scattered ones here and there.

I like the microwave idea, it's just a matter of convincing the wife to let me do this..

Thanks again,
Paul

[Curtis The Carver]

Wait till she goes out

[Mitchell]

Here's a previous thread: bugs

[Eddy-Smiles]

Save them! Bear on the Discovery Channel says that they're a great source of protein! Seriously, don't worry about the holes unless you actually see creepy crawly things.

[SeaLeveler]

A quick search turned up this site.Tony Powderpost beetles POWDER POST BEETLE CONTROL wood worm destroying insects

[Robson Valley]

1. I'm a retired biologist with a strong background in forest woods & bugs.
There are many species of wood boring insects, mostly the larvae but sometimes adults.
While they can endure cold winters in the natural world, they can't prepare for daily/weekly
freeze thaw.
2. There's bug damage to most of the western red cedar bolts that I collect in the mountains.
The logs are attacked normally when the trees are dropped in harvesting. Damage never seems to go below the whitish, outer sapwood, maybe 1/2 - 3/4" (1-2cm.). So, I score the sapwood with a skilsaw in a rectangular pattern and chip the pieces off. I'm surprised how many small fungus rot pockets/punky spots in the sapwood, too.
= = =
How deep are the tunnels? I predict they run all through your wood blocks, nearly blackened walls and nearly 1/8" diameter.