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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 30 Mar 2017 09:28pm
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I was ripping some redwood boards and found this under a piece of bark. Termites?
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 31 Mar 2017 12:06am
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I'm not sure about redwoods, but we see gallerys like that on pines all the time. The adult bark beetle bores through the bark and chews gallerys into the soft inner bark. She lays eggs along the gallerys. When the eggs hatch the larvae eat further galleys as they mature. They also really like to make themselves at home in fresh cut logs and branches; one reason I now prefer to cut in fall and winter when the beetles are not active. Then we can burn the slash and branches we don't want without raising another generation of beetles.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 31 Mar 2017 08:22am
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That might make a neat project/accent piece. Wash all the crud out, let it dry, paint it white, sand the paint off the high spots, then use it as a middle band on a wood box, towel rack, something.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 31 Mar 2017 01:57pm
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Apparently there are such things as redwood bark beetles, guess that's what it is. Yes it would make for interesting art, I'll have to keep my eye out for more of it. I don't think they are a danger to the heart wood.
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NorthRick
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# Posted: 31 Mar 2017 04:33pm
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We have spruce beetles up here. The larvae eat the "live" part of the tree trunk just under the bark. They don't damage the wood per se, but enough of them will eventually kill the tree.
We've lost a lot of spruce trees to these vermin in the last few years.
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 31 Mar 2017 11:50pm - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
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We have been hit with the spruce beetle, I think its called the Spruce Budworm and I have western bark beetles in some of my trees now. So far, its been limited to the small stands of tightly clumped stressed trees, did lose one larger one. So I am looking onto a large chipper. Either that $6K DR Chipper or a used commercial Vermeer unit.
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 1 Apr 2017 01:07am - Edited by: MtnDon
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Do some research before thinning infested trees. I am only familiar with the beetle that attacks the pines; so what I know may not apply to spruce beetles, etc. Our forest is predominately ponderosa with a few white pines, some firs.
With a pine it is obvious when a tree has been hit by the mountain pine beetle. There are gobs of sap that the tree produces at the hole the beetle made to enter the tree. A badly infested tree may have 30 such "pustules" in a twelve foot length.
If you just cut the tree down those beetles will leave for other trees. Not immediately because the fresh cut log can sustain beetles for quite a while. In fact cut wood that is still moist makes a welcome home for the beetles. The beetles can readily burrow under the bark and the tree can no longer produce sap in an effort to defend itself. So cut wood left sitting around can greatly increase the local beetle population. When those larvae mature they will go looking for living trees to infest.
The fresh cut logs, firewood, whatever you want to call it, should be stacked and covered with clear 6 milpoly. Clear, not black. The edges of the plastic should be buried in a shallow trench around the wood pile. Then you leave the pile sit for 90 days or so of warm or hot weather. That cooks the beetles and larvae. It is important to get that bottom edge buried as the beetles move through small gaps, but not through the earth.
Doing that can help reduce the beetle population. You can't kill them all. They were here in the forests long before we were. But we can practice techniques that can reduce their impact. Once the wood / logs are dry the pine beetle can not use that wood for egg laying and the larvae do not have the moist cambium they need to mature. Beetle movement is also why we should not move wood that is not thoroughly dry from one location to another distant place.
I don't know about the spruce, etc, so anyone interested in helping their trees survive should do some research. The state forestry division is usually a good source.
In a similar vein... sometimes doing what seems like a good idea can have unintended consequences. Our woods (ponderosa pine) have infestations of dwarf mistletoe. That is a parasite that slows growth, reduces seed production and can eventually kill the tree. The mistletoe seeds are dispersed in late summer when the parasite his engorged with water, taken from the tree. The seed is ejected explosively and can travel up to 30 feet. In an overgrown forest, typical of the western woods, the seed will probably hit some other tree within 5 or 6 feet and maybe be bounced back in the direction it came from. After we have thinned the trees the ejected seed may travel 15, 20 feet before hitting another tree.
Hence thinning, for other good reasons, can actually increase the rate of spread of dwarf mistletoe. But being that mistletoe kills much slower than a wildfire raging through an overgrown forest, thinning is still a great idea.
But talk to a forester before embarking on any well intentioned scheme.
Dwarf mistletoe document Interesting how the "thing" works. Nature is marvelous.
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 1 Apr 2017 08:37pm - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
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Don,. I have western bark beetle in my stand, not epidemic, but present. I have ponderosa pines with a small amount of Douglas fir, nothing else. Coming to my place, I go over several mt passes with spruce and they have been hit pretty good by the spruce budworm. But this isn't affecting my timber stand. I have already been contacted by the USDA about thinning my forest, mainly for fire prevention, they have been bugging my for about 10 years now. I am inclined to do it, but its a contract and they just pay so much an acre, I can do it, hire it out, but there is a deadline. It must meet their specs. I am not sure I need so much outside control, but do need to thin, this will make my existing stand tougher, the pitch is a defense and a healthy tree will just repel the beetle with pitch. I am monitoring the situation. The small trees, I want to run the entire things through the chipper, I am assuming the beetles wont survive it.
Its not only for the beetle spread, but just thinning in general for fire prevention. They want me to clear out heave dense stands, and leave selected larger trees, ie 15 yrs and older. All trees left will have the branches trimmed off about the 8 foot mark and the dead debris on the floor also chipped up.
I will cut no Douglas fir. Thanks for the valuable input, great idea on the woodpile and clear plastic too.
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Spiker
Member
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# Posted: 2 Apr 2017 05:30pm
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Looks like spruce beetles
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