Grubs in maple boards.

[jay156]

So I milled up these silver maple boards with my Alaskan mill, and found a bunch of insect holes in them with some living larvae in there. I don't know what kind they are, (maybe ambrosia beetles)?, so I attached a picture. (this one got nicked with the chainsaw, but it's otherwise okay). Is this kind of bug going to go through my stack of lumber so that I should toss the infected boards? Or will they metamorphose into something and leave the wood alone? Will fumigating kill them? Or are they so buried in the wood that the gas can't get to them?

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. The wood was harvested just west of Cleveland, Ohio.

In the first pic, you can see it's face (?) upside down. Looks like it has two red "angry eyes" and a black beak:



And in this one, you see it's body:

[Ianab]

Those guys generally can't live in dry wood, only green or wet. There are other grubs that will eat dry wood (powder post beetles), but that's not them.

So as the wood dries out they will either mature into a beetle and fly away, or shrivel up and die, depending on how fast you get the wood dry. A kiln will kill them straight away.

Ian

[estiers]

Can you give us an idea as to how big the larva was?

[jay156]

Well, I don't have a kiln, yet. I plan to build one over the winter, but as for now, the boards are air drying.

The larvae were about 1/8" diameter, maybe slightly bigger, and probably about 3/8" long.

I also noticed a few little piles of dark brown sawdust laying on a board or on the floor. Not sure what they're doing.

[tomb]

Well im not sure the kind of larva it is, but you can kill any critters with a product called Timbor.  Its what I use on all my lumber including the kiln dried stuff.  Its a wood preservative and a insecticide.  It comes in  powder form that you mix with warm water and spray onto the lumber.  The water soaks into the wood pulling the timbor into the grain.  After I spray the lumber I stack and sticker the boards untill they are dry and ready to use.
The Timbor does not stain or adversely affect the lumber, just kills the bugs!
Good luck with your milling adventures.
                                                              Tom