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  • From: SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Firewood
  • Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:00:05 -0400

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





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