Q.
This is my first time trying to dry wood. I have a stack of ash that has been air drying outdoors for two years. I'm ready to move it into the basement of my house to finish drying it.
Problem is, there is some type of worm in the wood. Will they die as the wood dries? Do I need to worry about them getting into the wood framing of my house? Can I kill them?
By the way, I don't recommend having all your wood indoors. It only takes a couple of months for dry boards to acclimate to indoors. Bring in what you need; a big indoor woodpile takes up a lot of shop space.
I may be biased, but I feel a conventional dry kiln is the best way to dry hardwoods, especially if you may have any kind of living matter in or on your wood (i.e., worms, bugs, fungus, bacteria, etc.). The higher heats would have more of a tendency to kill these pests.
Bug in ash is probably the powerpost beetle. All of my incoming green wood gets a spray of lindane prior to stickering the lumber, this will control the critter before they get in the wood. Lindane is a contact killer, i.e., the bugs have to come in contact for it to be effective. Lindane will not affect the bugs in the wood until they come out to finish their life cycle.
If the boards are small enough or can be cut down, C02 will work. I had wormy chestnut table tops which I placed in a large plastic bag and pressurized to kill the vermin.
It would take over two years of gassing to kill the lyctid powderpost beetle and its eggs, as the eggs may require two years to hatch. Lack of oxygen does not kill the eggs!
If the holes are smaller, then you may have the lyctid powderpost beetle, which indeed can cause substantial problems, even in dry wood.
A temperature of 130 degrees F will kill all insects, eggs, and fungi. It takes about 24 hours in most cases (this is the temperature in the wood).
Gene Wengert, forum moderator
