Critters in my cedar

[bob easton]

After ripping the edge off a live edge cedar flitch yesterday, I discovered a couple of critters. The wet glistening goo near them indicates they were recently alive (bisected by a saw blade). The best I can tell, they are white larvae of some sort.

The lumber is air dried Virginia white cedar. It came from the midde of a stickered stack that looked like it had been at the lumber yard for a long time ... good covering of grit and grime. Then, I've had it for another 4 months. This certainly isn't recently felled lumber.

In the photo, you are looking at the edge of the cut off piece. A little remnant of the critter is visible on the left edge of the hole. The rest of the critter is that wet smudge.

I found two along this 16 foot cut. Any need for concern? I doubt there is. If there were a lot of them, what should be done?

In the interest if providing complete information for Thorne, this cedar is being used for a Fiddlehead decked canoe. The board in question will be part of the bottom. This boat is not encapsulated in epoxy, but will be finished with oil inside and paint outside.
http://bob-easton.com/images/cedar-critter.jpg
http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/%22http://bob-easton.com/images/cedar-critter.jpg%22
http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/%22http://bob-easton.com/images/cedar-critter.jpg%22

[kc8pql]

In the interest if providing complete information for Thorne...
http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/%22http://bob-easton.com/images/cedar-critter.jpg%22

:D:D:D

[gregleeber]

its a bed bug. I gitem in my sheets in the summer. No worries they dont bite and they clean up the dead skin cells that drop into the sheets or in this case your bilge....

[ccx2]

:D:D:D

I havent been a member of this site long, i think THORNE is a cool dude and a wealth of info but that was a good one Easton.

[StevenBauer]

What a fun boat to build. :) No help with the beasties. Have your moaning chair ready for those garboards. :D


Steven

[Bob Smalser]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Engerling1.jpg/250px-Engerling1.jpg

It's a nice, fat beetle larva. It was beneath the bark before they milled the log. Notice it's in the sapwood where the sugars are. Dry out the lumber and they'll die and not reoccur.

I occasionally get them in my cedar when I leave logs with bark on them lay around for too long in warm weather. After air drying the wood, filling the holes with thickened epoxy solves any potential problems. You're not gonna use the sapwood in a boat anyway.

No biggie. Cedar heartwood generally isn't bothered by the beetles that propogate in dry wood and reoccur. And their holes are much smaller:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/18169354/285438315.jpg

Longer, darker holes around the same size as your beetle near the pith of the log are from large carpenter ants and are also easily filled with epoxy with no reoccurrence. The ants nest in the rotting pith of cedar trees, notably in Western Red. Here are some in cedar scrap:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/4664832/55976522.jpg

[Thorne]

I am SO gratified. Info, I loves info!

;0 )

Sounds like it should be no problem, particularly for planks thin enough for a Fiddlehead.

[bob easton]

Thanks Bob! What was left of the critter looked exactly like your beetle larva.

It was indeed in the sapwood. I was ripping just outside of the line between sapwood and heartwood.

(You see, I did hold something back from "cool dude" Thorne.)

[ccx2]

Thanks Bob! What was left of the critter looked exactly like your beetle larva.

It was indeed in the sapwood. I was ripping just outside of the line between sapwood and heartwood.

(You see, I did hold something back from "cool dude" Thorne.)

Its the Hat.

[bob easton]

Note to Thorne:
Since electronic communications can sometimes be misinterpreted, I'll be very clear.

My teasing is meant in the very best of spirits and respect for you.

I'm always tickled when you immediately ask for more information. Yet, it's a very valuable service you perform for the forum, reminding us to be as clear as possible when asking for help. THANKS for all you offer here, and keep on keeping us in line. :)

[Dave Carnell]

Ethylene glycol antifreeze painted on the wood will kill all and any critters in the wood.

[Thorne]

One takes those comments as a tribute to one's magnificence, never as an insult to one's person...

(grin)

Seriously, since I spend much of my time at work painfully prying information out of users (computer help desk), it just comes naturally to do the same here. I am honored to have the reputation of someone trying to make this great resource more effective, even if it may seem that I'm a bit of a pest to those newbies who post questions like, "What's the best boat that can circumnavigate and be cartopped?"

Plus I hate seeing everyone on the Forum waste time and typing when they respond to fuzzy questions or incomplete info - better to keep it all clear. It also teaches everyone the truth of GIGO.

And yes, the hat certainly helps...
http://www.luckhardt.com/burgonet1web.jpg

[outofthenorm]

, "What's the best boat that can circumnavigate and be cartopped?"



How big is the car? :D:D:D

- Norm

[ccx2]

Note to Thorne:
Since electronic communications can sometimes be misinterpreted, I'll be very clear.

My teasing is meant in the very best of spirits and respect for you.

I'm always tickled when you immediately ask for more information. Yet, it's a very valuable service you perform for the forum, reminding us to be as clear as possible when asking for help. THANKS for all you offer here, and keep on keeping us in line. :)
Well said, yup, same here.:)

[johnw]

Ethylene glycol antifreeze painted on the wood will kill all and any critters in the wood.

Stuff is toxic. Woodenboat recommends polyethylene glycol, not ethylene glycol.

[johnw]

"What's the best boat that can circumnavigate and be cartopped?"

As long as the car, with boat attached, will fit in the hold a a freighter, I could make some recommendations...

[Dave Carnell]

If ethylene glycol weren't toxic it wouldn't kill critters or rot organisms. Polyethylene glycol is only useful for flushing bowels and even there it violates the 8th amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

[TimmS]

After ripping the edge off a live edge cedar flitch yesterday, I discovered a couple of critters. The wet glistening goo near them indicates they were recently alive (bisected by a saw blade). The best I can tell, they are white larvae of some sort.

The lumber is air dried Virginia white cedar. It came from the midde of a stickered stack that looked like it had been at the lumber yard for a long time ... good covering of grit and grime. Then, I've had it for another 4 months. This certainly isn't recently felled lumber.

In the photo, you are looking at the edge of the cut off piece. A little remnant of the critter is visible on the left edge of the hole. The rest of the critter is that wet smudge.

I found two along this 16 foot cut. Any need for concern? I doubt there is. If there were a lot of them, what should be done?

In the interest if providing complete information for Thorne, this cedar is being used for a Fiddlehead decked canoe. The board in question will be part of the bottom. This boat is not encapsulated in epoxy, but will be finished with oil inside and paint outside.
http://bob-easton.com/images/cedar-critter.jpg
http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/%22http://bob-easton.com/images/cedar-critter.jpg%22
http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/%22http://bob-easton.com/images/cedar-critter.jpg%22
It looks to me like the critters are only in the sapwood. Can you trim that part off? the heart wood is generally better for boats anyway.