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wormey oak

1K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  jim_hazel 
#1 ·
Someone a few days ago posted about building cabinets from wormey oak. I had some oak trees that had fallen down sawed into 1x lumber. Much of it is wormey oak. The worms are still alive. I do not have a microwave large enough to put these 12 ft long boards in. How do I kill the worms that are in the dried, stacked with spacer, inside barn, lumber. I find sawdust piles on boards that fall out of worm holes in board above. If i dig in I find live worm.
Mulberry
 
#2 ·
I would start out by contacting my local Agriculture Agent and see what he says. If he can't help, I'd try my local pest control and see what they say - but they might well want you to pay for their services, I don't know.

And, you can always search on-line and see what you come up with. I recall someone having a similar problem some years ago, but don't recall now what the solution was. Borax seems to pop into my mind. In another case an individual took apart a small log cabin and reassembled it inside their home. With live bugs in it, says they can be heard munching when it's real quiet. But the concenses was, after consulting an expert, that they couldn't breed in there, and would eventually all die out, and no structural harm done. So they were left alone.
 
#3 ·
Most of the 'worms' are really larvae of various insects. When they mature, they will leave the lumber. If the wood is sufficiently green and moist, perhaps another generation will hatch, but probably not. I would just wait it out keeping the boards as described, in a dry place with spacers for air. Depending on how it was sawn, you will probably get a lot of checking, warping and twisting. To use a board while it is still green, you could douse it with alcohol which should kill the worms.
 
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