Wood worm

[Rustington]

Looks like I may have wood work in some of my logs. 
I'm guessing this will spread unless stopped.

 

Any advice on what to do?

[Steven P]

Wood worm has a 4 or 5 year lifecycle so usually if you dry the logs and then burn them within a couple of years you don't have problems.

 

Might be problems if you have other wood stuff about that is precious. For example you might not want to bring more than necessary into the house over the winter (winter, hibernation but warm house might wake them up again)

 

I'd isolate what you know is affected and burn that next.

[Rustington]

31 minutes ago, Steven P said:

Wood worm has a 4 or 5 year lifecycle so usually if you dry the logs and then burn them within a couple of years you don't have problems.

 

Might be problems if you have other wood stuff about that is precious. For example you might not want to bring more than necessary into the house over the winter (winter, hibernation but warm house might wake them up again)

 

I'd isolate what you know is affected and burn that next.

It looks like it’s in some fresh ash I have. Can only see a few holes but there is lots of powder like wood dust where they are sitting.

 

Plenty of precautions wood in the house, the log store is made of wood, as is the fences around it. And obviously all my other logs that I have stored.

 

Is it worth spraying with woodworm killer?

Going to be very hard to find all the effected logs.

[Steven P]

I'd treat the log store, though the treatments are generally surface treatments - if they are in the log store just now they will keep eating away, being killed off when they emerge and eat through the treated outer surface.

 

For wood around it, the life span of the beetle is 2 to 7 years (depends on the source you read) - it will be in the wood that long before coming out to breed and infest somewhere. If you assume that they get out the ash this summer and infest the other logs you have 2 years minimum before they are ready to breed, which might enough time to burn the logs you have, so I wouldn't be too concerned with them. Burn the ash first of course.

 

Odd, I always thought that fresh logs were too moist for wood worm and too dry they don't like that either. Winter might help, a good long cold spell will kill them off, the wood they are in has to be below -5 (?) for about 3 or 4 days - which can help the fence since it will get cold enough and if the cold of winter long enough should be OK. Fences are also tend to be treated with paints, stains and so on which they don't like - preference to go elsewhere, like the log pile.

[Paul in the woods]

2 hours ago, Rustington said:

It looks like it’s in some fresh ash I have. Can only see a few holes but there is lots of powder like wood dust where they are sitting.

 

Sounds like ask bark beetle, if you peel off some bark you may see galleries but no damage to the wood. They are very, very common and will not harm anything else.

[Rustington]

44 minutes ago, Paul in the woods said:

Sounds like ask bark beetle, if you peel off some bark you may see galleries but no damage to the wood. They are very, very common and will not harm anything else.

I like this reply.

i have only seen the holes in the bark while splitting the logs today.

Let me go grab a snap……. 📸 

[Rustington]

[Steven P]

Tracks are too big for wood worm, typically 1 to 1.5mm diameter