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[SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>]

Robert Walton wrote:
> The gnashing and gnawing of insect teeth in that pine in the first
> stack is close to being identified. They leave a stringy wood litter
>   
That's "frass".... leftover chewings

I'd gotten curious after your last post and found a couple of pics to 
check out:  this is from a NCU publication a visiting Tidewater VA  
friend of mine had; she graciously typed it out and sent it to me.  I've 
been hanging onto it in case the subject came up again (I'll always 
'talk bugs' but not sure anybody else interested!).

People with dead pines are often startled to hear the clicking or 
rasping noises of southern pine sawyers  from under the bark. They 
assume this is the southern pine beetle, but bark beetles are too small 
to make noise heard all the way through the bark. Sawyers are abundant 
in North Carolina and are very sensitive to the health of pines. Very 
soon after a pine reaches the point of no return//, adult sawyers fly to 
and chew holes in the bark, then lay eggs under the bark. Sawyer larvae 
hatch and bore in the sap wood for a while, then tunnel directly into 
the heart wood and tunnel back and forth before pupating about a year 
later. One reason pines are best cut in the winter for log homes is that 
during warm weather the sawyers infest the logs and soon degrade the 
wood with their tunnels. As the grubs feed, they force sawdust out of 
the trees. Pinewood nematodes are carried by sawyers and perhaps other 
beetles. New sawyers  feed on the bark of conifer twigs and infest the 
new tree with nematodes from the tree the beetle emerged from. Because 
sawyers feed on the bark of healthy trees, it is possible for such trees 
to become infested with pinewood nematodes at that time. There is no 
practical way to control sawyers other than keeping trees in good health 
(avoiding soil compaction, irrigating in dry weather, using proper 
fertilizers, etc.).

I googled "southern pine sawyer" in Google Images and there are a couple 
of photos of grubs and bunches of the adults.


> behind. When I was splitting the pine today, I found lots of big white
> grubs and little white bugs. I have yet to see these little buggers
> working for their food, but think I might go sit in the seat by the
> wood pile and listen to them gnaw before I hit the hay.
>
>   
You deserve it!

SJ