Hello,
About 4-5 years ago our Silver Maple was cut down because the roots were causing issues with our lateral drain line. It was a large tree. I contacted a local portable sawmill guy and he did a great job milling the tree trunks on our property.
My plan was / is to use the wood planks in a future home addition as a feature wall for a modern staircase. So I built an open air 8' x 16' x 10' tall shed behind the garage and stacked the wood on ash hardwood stickers mostly and a few 2×4's at the top when I ran out of the ash stickers. The shed is built out of pressure treated lumber.
2-3 years ago I started to notice minor sawdust heaps here and there but nothing excessive seemed to be going on. At first I thought it was the ash stickers that were being eaten but now realize it was the silver maple planks. So earlier this year I sprayed a termite killer on the visible / accessible parts. We've had a lot of rain lately and I was alarmed when I looked at the pile a few days ago and saw all the sawdust piles.
I am not sure if the insects are powderpost beetles, termites or carpenter bees. There was a bees nest on the soffit of the wood shed that I sprayed with insect killer earlier in the year and I don't see any activity. There is a smaller nest developing on another part of the soffit and I can see bees flying. Not sure if they are yellow jackets or bees. We have yellow jacket nest somewhere else on our property in a cross section of the silver maple trunk. I took care of those.
What's the best approach to take care of this issue?
Here is the plan I have at the moment:
I just purchased a car port on Amazon and once it arrives will set it up on the lawn. Then I plan to remove all the planks from the wood shed, wipe / brush them down and spray all sides of each plank with a termite / wood boring insect killer. I will stack them in the car port on the lawn. Then I will go to town on the wood shed and spray it with termite killer and mildew remover. I will also treat the ground all around the house, garage and wood shed with a termite killer.
I will probably stain the shed while the wood is under the car port and will stack them higher and narrower when they are brought back to the wood shed. That way there will be a bigger overhang to prevent the wood from getting wet so often when it rains.
The wood will have to stay in the open air wood shed for a few more years since I don't see the addition happening soon. If I have to do this once a year I will to maintain the wood. I think these insects are thriving off the moisture. If I dried the wood in a home made kiln to kill the insects it would just get wet again overtime once I store them in the shed.
I could maybe close the sides of the shed with bug screen or canvas to keep the elements and other bugs out.
Btw, I saved a lot of sawdust in metal containers during the milling process and plan to mix this with gorilla glue and rub the mix into the planks after planing. That should take care of all the tiny holes created by the insects. There's some holes from ants also that had a nest in the tree when it was still alive. I think these all tell a story of the tree and don't mind a few holes here and there filled with sawdust and glue.
Please let me know if you have better ideas to save the wood.
Below are some photos showing the issue.
About 4-5 years ago our Silver Maple was cut down because the roots were causing issues with our lateral drain line. It was a large tree. I contacted a local portable sawmill guy and he did a great job milling the tree trunks on our property.
My plan was / is to use the wood planks in a future home addition as a feature wall for a modern staircase. So I built an open air 8' x 16' x 10' tall shed behind the garage and stacked the wood on ash hardwood stickers mostly and a few 2×4's at the top when I ran out of the ash stickers. The shed is built out of pressure treated lumber.
2-3 years ago I started to notice minor sawdust heaps here and there but nothing excessive seemed to be going on. At first I thought it was the ash stickers that were being eaten but now realize it was the silver maple planks. So earlier this year I sprayed a termite killer on the visible / accessible parts. We've had a lot of rain lately and I was alarmed when I looked at the pile a few days ago and saw all the sawdust piles.
I am not sure if the insects are powderpost beetles, termites or carpenter bees. There was a bees nest on the soffit of the wood shed that I sprayed with insect killer earlier in the year and I don't see any activity. There is a smaller nest developing on another part of the soffit and I can see bees flying. Not sure if they are yellow jackets or bees. We have yellow jacket nest somewhere else on our property in a cross section of the silver maple trunk. I took care of those.
What's the best approach to take care of this issue?
Here is the plan I have at the moment:
I just purchased a car port on Amazon and once it arrives will set it up on the lawn. Then I plan to remove all the planks from the wood shed, wipe / brush them down and spray all sides of each plank with a termite / wood boring insect killer. I will stack them in the car port on the lawn. Then I will go to town on the wood shed and spray it with termite killer and mildew remover. I will also treat the ground all around the house, garage and wood shed with a termite killer.
I will probably stain the shed while the wood is under the car port and will stack them higher and narrower when they are brought back to the wood shed. That way there will be a bigger overhang to prevent the wood from getting wet so often when it rains.
The wood will have to stay in the open air wood shed for a few more years since I don't see the addition happening soon. If I have to do this once a year I will to maintain the wood. I think these insects are thriving off the moisture. If I dried the wood in a home made kiln to kill the insects it would just get wet again overtime once I store them in the shed.
I could maybe close the sides of the shed with bug screen or canvas to keep the elements and other bugs out.
Btw, I saved a lot of sawdust in metal containers during the milling process and plan to mix this with gorilla glue and rub the mix into the planks after planing. That should take care of all the tiny holes created by the insects. There's some holes from ants also that had a nest in the tree when it was still alive. I think these all tell a story of the tree and don't mind a few holes here and there filled with sawdust and glue.
Please let me know if you have better ideas to save the wood.
Below are some photos showing the issue.