Borax. Safe or not?

[Badgerland]

Hi all.

 

I've got some acacia burr in the yard at the moment and a large field maple covered in burr (roots n all) coming down in the next few days, all of which I'm going to mill up shortly. I know for a fact that I've got longhorn beetle in the yard, both the plain brown type as well as four banded. From experience I know these little beggars love anything with bark left on so my question is can I use borax or something similar to deter them? From other threads about borax I gather that it soaks in to fresh sawn timber and puts borers off. However, as a lot of my burrs go for products used to hold food is it a safe product to be using?

 

Any other suggestions for possible alternatives welcome

[Big Beech]

I presume your yard is under tight defra control then if you have these beetles "currently in stock"

[Graham]

I think it's the Asian variety that's under DEFRA control. I had them once in a mantlepiece I cut for the house. Had to catch them as they emerged:001_smile:

[Badgerland]

No Big Beech, not under tight control. As far as I understand its only Asian and Citrus longhorn beetles that are on the DEFRA lists.

 

From a quick google search there are approx 67 species of longhorns in the UK. These little blighters are only about 12mm long (not including antennae) not the big foreign imports. They don't seem to go for standing timber but usually bore in to cut logs and branches with the bark still on.

[broonie]

Keeping wood free of powder post beetles - Page 2

http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927105

[Badgerland]

Thanks for the links Broonie. Not a great fan of chemicals personally, so made interesting reading. tbh my gut feeling is to stay clear and just let nature do what it does and work around it.

[Bogoak]

Thanks for the links Broonie. Not a great fan of chemicals personally, so made interesting reading. tbh my gut feeling is to stay clear and just let nature do what it does and work around it.

Yes but you might find there's nothing left. I just can't keep beech or sycamore and even oak suffers. By the time it's dry it's riddled with holes and only fit for firewood.

[Badgerland]

Yes but you might find there's nothing left. I just can't keep beech or sycamore and even oak suffers. By the time it's dry it's riddled with holes and only fit for firewood.

 

With these longhorn darlings they only tend to attack stuff with bark left on and then they only seem to go into the sap wood. Ordinarily that's not too much of an issue as the sap wood normally gets removed when I'm making finished products. Problem is I sell a fair bit of burr and I often leave bark on them cos it's a pain in the proverbial to remove it all. Hours with a screw driver levering it off is not my idea of heaven or time well spent! (Anybody got a better way of stripping the bark off I'd be interested to hear more.)