Honey Locust

Welcome to the club LickingCountyCutter

That sure is some fine looking wood for the stacks.

 

I have 4 cord of honey locust css. Most of it is under roof. 1 cord outside top covered. The hickory borers tore the cord outside up. I haven’t had powder post beetles. The stacks under roof were barely touched. They made such a mess i Restacked the cord and moved it under roof. The wood dust was so thick I was afraid it would rot the splits. I’m not bringing green honey locust to the woodshed anymore. I’ll ring the trees and let the bark fall off before I css.


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Moparguy, what do you mean when you say it's a living fossil? Is it a particularly old species?

Welcome, LCC! That tree sure was quite a gift, between the beautiful lumber and great firewood! Nice score!

 

I have burned some honey locust and some black locust. I have never dealt with any bugs. Is there anything one can do to kill the bugs if you get them? I would really hate to lose a nice stack of 3 year plan wood to a bunch of bugs.

 

I’m not sure, I’ve read that the hickory bore will only bother the wood if it’s within a year of being cut. I’m guessing that has to do with moisture. That’s why I’m going to ring them and let them stand a few years before I process.


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Yes, there is a spray you can put on the wood for carpenter ants, borers and termites. I have had to use some occasionally. Kept roaches and spiders out of the stacks too.

 

When I got my first major HL score, the PPB moved in with vengeance...they made so much dust it was 1/2" thick in some places and once that got wet, it just held the moisture...never did dry out.
A year or two later, once the PPB had moved on, I had to completely disassemble that stack, knock the heavy dust off each split, and restack. Fortunately I needed to move the stack anyways, but all that wet sawdust really delayed the splits drying. Believe it or not, some of the smaller pieces were starting to rot! Those were CSS 5 years ago and I still have a bit left that I throw in the fire occasionally...

 

Welcome to the Club!

 

Just to be clear. I have some powder post beetles. I don’t like them but they aren’t a big deal. What I have in my honey locust is a hickory borer. They lay there larvae in the spring and they live off of your wood all summer. I’m guessing they bore a 1/4” hole. They make a chit ton of fine saw dust. Here some pics of their boring capabilities. cdn.com/20190206/9785f642b35e2bc7dcf74885421aa7f7.jpg[/IMG]


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Dang guys, thanks for the heads up. I have the HL stacked in a covered woodshed (my long term storage). I feel like that was already a mistake and my impact my curing time. However, you think this may deter any borers, or is that false hope?

 

Only if you have a bug proof woodshed (I wanna see that!) but if its covered from the rain then the PPB/borer frass will not cause near the problems that it did for me...so other than that, maybe their lil holes will help to dry the wood faster?!

 

I would leave it where it’s at. I think if you can get past the first year you will be fine. I’ve cut standing dead HL and it don’t get a bug hole in it.


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You may get some borers in it, but it will be fine. I have some small oak and hickory rounds (1"-4"), been in shed for a couple years. They got in it, but just knock the dust off and burn it. There is a spray for carpenter ants, borers and termites I have sprayed on mine when I had a small black wood ant in it. I will try to find it.

 

In the last couple days I put about 20 splits of honey locust in the hearth cavity behind the stove. They are already checking on the ends. I'll leave them there until spring, then take a moisture reading. I don't have the patience to wait 4-5 years for a piece of wood to get dry enough to burn.

 

Maybe I have hickory borers too then, becuase some of my splits have those same kind of 1/4" holes. But I never really see any larvae.

 

There is an actual Locust boring beetle. My first encounter with them was last fall.

Megacyllene robiniae - Wikipedia