[BigDeal52]

I'm new to this message board. Only been carving 2 or three years. I do a lot of carving on found wood. Friends of mine have land and often give me wood they find when clearing brush, walking around etc. I am worried that the wood might have termites and other pests that I might not want around my house. Someone told me once to put the wood in the oven at 170 F for about 20 minutes and it will kill all critters.

I was wondering what other folks do.

[squbrigg]

I place the wood in a garbage bag and fill the bag with car exaust, tie it off for a while and no more bugs.

Bob

[BigDeal52]

Very clever!

[Ashbys]

Do a search for Termites,
there is a rather long discussion in that thread about the ways to remove bugs .

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Put it in the freezer if it will fit! live it for a couple of days. Otherwise, charge extra for the holes.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I do both, exhaust and freezer

[brian bailey]

Here's how I do it and it works for me! Nearly 100% effective too .

For larger loads of lumber, I use my dry kiln to heat the wood to 140*F. for several hours at the end of the drying cycle. Photo 1

For small chunks and found wood, I use a small chamber made out of plywood 2' x 2' x 8'. I made this chamber so it could be taken apart when not in use.

I use a small electric space heater placed inside the chamber. I have a digital thermostat to regulate the temp. and a digital thermometer to check the temp. at the far end of the chamber. Photos 2 & 3

I heat the wood to 140*F. for about 8 hrs.
Someday I'll insert a temp probe into a sample block so when the temp. inside the block reaches 135*F. I'll know that I'll only have to cook the wood for 30 mins. to effectively kill any/ all insects, larve, eggs and or fungus.

The 4th photo is a picture of the bowl & ladle that I made from the gray looking block that was in the chamber in photo 2.

Just remember if you're using heat to sterilize your wood, you just want to heat it not dry the wood!

[Mitchell]

Here's a previous discussion on this subject:

Found wood and bugs

[Eddy Smiles]

Anteaters Work! Hee! Hee!

Seriously, I use to bring home pine and them little suckers love to get between the bark and the hard wood of pine, that is until they get a taste of the hard wood, then nothing's safe. Best thing to do is trim off all the rotted and termite eaten part of the wood with a chain saw or axe. You can't very well carve it anyway. Once the queen is gone the colony will die so if one or two little creepy crawlers are left just squash them. Then do what Lynn said, charge extra for the holes!

[brian bailey]

In response to a recent e-mail from me, here's what the staff at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin recommended on what to do to rid wood of bugs.


"The best thing you can do is to keep your wood in a dry, confined area and check it periodically for any kind of activity.

Cold treatment is an efficient way to deal with insects in smaller pieces of wood. For this you have to make sure the wood has been kept at room temp or higher for a period of time, and then put it in a freezer for a few days to a week. You can repeat this a few times to make sure that all larvae in the wood have died. Keep in mind that it is the shock that kills them, not just the cold.

Treating wood with borates also prevents infestation from occurring in storage, but I don't know how that would work for what you do with the wood.

Having the wood kiln dried, or fumigated with methyl bromide by a pest control company are other methods, but these do tend to get costly and are generally used as a last resort."


Here's what they had to say about putting wood in a plastic bag and filling it with car exhaust to eliminate insects.


"I haven't heard of this method or any studies pertaining to killing insects with car exhaust. The method may be a feel good method that people think is effective because actual proven methods are more expensive.

For preventing an insect problem in your wood I would really rather you use another method other than automobile exhaust.

I wouldn't use this method unless there is some serious scientific
evidence supporting the claim."