• Congratulations to Phil Hamel winner of the April 2025 Turning Challenge (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Steve Bonny for "A Book Holds What Time Lets Go" being selected as Turning of the Week for 28 April, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Bug control around wood stash

Jamie Straw

Jamie Straw

Joined
May 28, 2015
Messages
1,616
Likes
222
Location
Bainbridge Island, WA
OK, I've dismantled most of my "flat stock" lumber rack, installed one of those steel shelving units with the open-grid shelves for air circulation. Given the close-to-nature character of my shop -- old garage with lots of air leaks and entrance points for vermin and bugs -- I want to provide for bug control where all this wood is living. The lowest shelf is for high-moisture-content wood, the floor is for green once-turned bowls (on some kind of grid so they're not actually touching the concrete). The top three shelves are for dry wood, both spindle stock and bowl stock.

I was thinking about Borax (powder, not boric acid liquid) sprinkled on the floor beneath the shelf unit, and a small perimeter around it. Is this enough to keep the bugs at bay? Other suggestions?

Next up will be the outdoor bin (10'L, 4'H, 3'D) that has held green-cut wood in the past. Bugs ate that stuff big-time. Not sure if anything can stop them, though people tell me all the time they just keep hunks of wood in a pile somewhere under cover.:p
 
Boric acid "powder" (not liquid) is used for roaches and maybe some other disgusting critters. I've never heard of Borax being used as an insecticide, but Wikipedia says, "Borax, mixed with sugar and/or honey and dissolved in boiling water, is reportedly effective in killing ants. This may provide an advantage over boric acid in wet environments, as boric acid becomes ineffective for this use when it becomes wet."

...... But, who knows, it might be the boiling water that does the ants in. :D
 
The borax powder is supposed to be good for killing powder post beetles. Just on the floor won't do it though, at least I don't think so. Other things, citrus spray, and maybe moth balls...

robo hippy
 
Jamie Straw said:
OK, I've dismantled most of my "flat stock" lumber rack, installed one of those steel shelving units with the open-grid shelves for air circulation. Given the close-to-nature character of my shop -- old garage with lots of air leaks and entrance points for vermin and bugs -- I want to provide for bug control where all this wood is living. The lowest shelf is for high-moisture-content wood, the floor is for green once-turned bowls (on some kind of grid so they're not actually touching the concrete). The top three shelves are for dry wood, both spindle stock and bowl stock.

I was thinking about Borax (powder, not boric acid liquid) sprinkled on the floor beneath the shelf unit, and a small perimeter around it. Is this enough to keep the bugs at bay? Other suggestions?

Next up will be the outdoor bin (10'L, 4'H, 3'D) that has held green-cut wood in the past. Bugs ate that stuff big-time. Not sure if anything can stop them, though people tell me all the time they just keep hunks of wood in a pile somewhere under cover.:p
Click to expand...

You're in a relatively warm, wet climate. Best advice is to not expect a stash of green wood, unless it's naturally durable on the ground, to last for a long time. The bugs don't eat the heart wood, with some exceptions, but they get into the cambium and the sapwood where the sugar is. Scattering dry borax might help, won't hurt unless you have pets or children around. Dry is what stops a lot of things, from bugs to fungus, so off the floor and maybe a bit of visqueen to make a big ventilated plastic bag around the wood wouldn't hurt either. Those of us with short warm seasons can store green wood of some species for a couple-three years, which is why some tell you that.
 
Keep an eye out for sawdust. Be wary of greenish limb wood brought in to the garage. Anything with bark is suspect.
I try to keep wood like that out of the garage ( my shop too ) until I have given it time, in a protected spot outside, to reveal bugs.
A couple of times I have brought dogwood limbs home only to have them exhibit beetle infestations a couple of weeks later.
If those buggers get into your wood stash....ouch!
I keep all of the wood not on the wood rack up off of the floor on some old metal shelves. The garage floor is just to humid.
I try to limit indoor spalting ;)
Diatomaceous earth can also be sprinkled around ( blown in to cracks ) to deter/kill insects. Not good to breathe though if you blow your shop out .
 
Mark Wollschlagiser said:
Keep an eye out for sawdust. Be wary of greenish limb wood brought in to the garage. Anything with bark is suspect.
I try to keep wood like that out of the garage ( my shop too ) until I have given it time, in a protected spot outside, to reveal bugs.
A couple of times I have brought dogwood limbs home only to have them exhibit beetle infestations a couple of weeks later.
If those buggers get into your wood stash....ouch!
I keep all of the wood not on the wood rack up off of the floor on some old metal shelves. The garage floor is just to humid.
I try to limit indoor spalting ;)
Diatomaceous earth can also be sprinkled around ( blown in to cracks ) to deter/kill insects. Not good to breathe though if you blow your shop out .
Click to expand...
Ah, diatomaceous earth is the other thing I'd heard about, couldn't remember the name, will try some. Right now, the green wood is all maple chunks, I'll go on a binge and get them rough turned, 9 of them. Thanks, Mark.
 
For outside around the house, I spray with Sevin liquid, diluted per instructions. I do this every spring. Last year I got lazy and was infested with spiders. Diatomaceous earth is the "shells" of little critters and can be abrasive to the lungs, like coal dust causes black lung in miners. It is used also as a filtering agent for filtering cooking oil in restaurants.
Keep the wood off the floor and check it periodically for evidence of nasty critters.
 
I do not think diatomaceous earth is the way to go inside. It works in the garden for soft bellied insects who crawl on their bellies. Most insects we get in wood fly there.

Keep it in a dry place off the floor and watch for signs of infestation, which is the time for moving the wood outside. For outside storage best to be raised off the ground, smaller limb wood works or landscape timbers. Also cover for shade , not to seal and not in full sun.
 
If your wood is already infested when you get it, my experience is that there isn't much that you can do other than turn it before they turn it to dust.

For protection against bugs invading your wood in the shop, try to bug proof the storage area. My garage is air conditioned and heated which is ideal, but high and dry is a good solution. A large pile of wood on the ground is an ideal home for critters of all kinds. Don't let wood sit around too long. If you use chemical pesticides, use them outdoors around your shop/garage to kill them before they get inside.
 
Gerald Lawrence said:
I do not think diatomaceous earth is the way to go inside. It works in the garden for soft bellied insects who crawl on their bellies. Most insects we get in wood fly there.
Click to expand...

Mmmmm, it affects spider, roaches and fleas (in addition to softies like silverfish and various larvae). I think it might have some success against things that might crawl on the floor, but I hear ya on the flying infesters not caring a hoot.

Gerald Lawrence said:
Keep it in a dry place off the floor and watch for signs of infestation, which is the time for moving the wood outside. For outside storage best to be raised off the ground, smaller limb wood works or landscape timbers. Also cover for shade , not to seal and not in full sun.
Click to expand...

Found the perfect thing to raise stuff off the floor -- they're plastic grids made for horse paddocks. My old stable tore up most of the paddocks last year, and we scored some of the used grid to help will parking places here at home. Two strips covered the area under the shelves. They're black, and laid on top of that black house construction paper(?) so any sawdust will show up quickly.
 
John Torchick said:
For outside around the house, I spray with Sevin liquid, diluted per instructions. I do this every spring. Last year I got lazy and was infested with spiders. Diatomaceous earth is the "shells" of little critters and can be abrasive to the lungs, like coal dust causes black lung in miners. It is used also as a filtering agent for filtering cooking oil in restaurants.
Keep the wood off the floor and check it periodically for evidence of nasty critters.
Click to expand...
I've avoided Sevin ever since a cat of mine had a very severe reaction to it (decades ago, before Frontline, Advantage and such). The shop is a spider-free zone as much as possible, but I like as many spiders as we can get everywhere else, to catch the mosquitos and other undesirables.:) Seems like there must be something we could put on rough-turned bowls that would discourage the munchies.:p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top