Help with bugs: are there any or not?

I scored some (almost) free CVG Douglas fir several months ago, and I'm finally getting around to thinking of its best use. It is beautiful wood, ruler-straight grain, clear as Lake Tahoe, and has up to 30+ rings per inch. The pieces were part of an old workbench, and have a few odd drillholes here and there, but I like used wood a lot.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of bug holes, from at least two kinds of bugs, given the diameters of the holes. I have had the wood for several months now, and have seen absolutely no sign that the bugs are still in there. No bugs, no eggs, no bug parts, no suspicious sawdust. I have had carpenter ants in my house twice, and know the look of ant sawdust, but have seen nothing on this fir.

Is there any way short of cutting the wood into little strips to find out if the bugs are still present and alive somehow?

Alternatively, I could treat the wood preemptively, just to make sure. I'd rather not use poison, because I intend to use the wood as part of a dresser. Does anyone know how much heat it takes to kill most wood-eating insects? I saw a method for killing bedbugs that uses a temporary styrofoam heat box for an entire mattress. If some reasonably low heat could kill the bugs, I could rig one up myself.

Thanks!

Reply to
scritch
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USDA requires 130 degrees F core temperature for 30 minutes,

This will kill any insects present.

Basilisk

Reply to
basilisk

Should be able to easily do that with black plastic and sunlight.

Reply to
dadiOH

Only 130 F? That seems cool. Maybe that's why I never hear of a termite problem in Arizona.

Time to set up my temporary "oven"!

Reply to
scritch

there are only 2 kinds of houses in az. those that have termites, and those that will have them.

ground temps are way under 130. for that matter, the highest recorded temp in phoenix was only 127F.

regards, charlie cave creek, az

Reply to
charlie

To be more precise it is 56 C or 132.8 F, not much different than my original post but I should have looked it up in place of relying on my faulty memory.

A lot you wreck menbers may have noticed the "HT" part of the grade stamp on lumber, the "HT" indicates that the material meets these requirements.

basilisk

basilisk

Reply to
basilisk

Redwood dealers - bears, tables... have to have their stuff Gassed.

A company (exterminator) puts it in a container and sets off the gas. The tank is pressurized to make sure it gets into the wood. I also think a vacuum is drawn first - to draw the chemical into the wood.

I now this as my table was delayed for almost a week. Ya pays your money and ya wait!

Mart> I scored some (almost) free CVG Douglas fir several months ago, and I'm

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

I have bugs that ate a tree to nothing. I cut a very nasty Honey Locust. I even thought about trying to turn it - but it was to far gone while green.

The Locust when cut bleed a white sap that must have been the sugar within. Within months the tree was almost powder - but the fire ants moved in and got the bugs and then the rest of the sap. Almost powder in a year.

I really wonder about the 130 - likely 130 C if valid.

Mart> dadiOH wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

here's the cite forthe requirements.

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Reply to
basilisk

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