My first encounter with these guys. Helping to clear some land for my boss and we've been taking down some honey locust among other trees. Was walking past a small piece of it laying by one of the piles and saw these bugs running all over the log. Maybe a 14' length with median diameter of 5". There were at least 20 of them on that one log. Watched and snapped pics for a bit, then went and checked the other piles and sure enough they were the same, just covered with these little beetles. They were exclusively on the honey locust pieces leaving the other species alone completely. Took a few google minutes to figure what they were. I found them interesting and thought I would share. Megacyllene robiniae - Wikipedia
I was curious about that. Seems that they are "normal" unlike the ALHB and Ash Borers. They do cause damage, but it is 'only in black locust' (the logs I saw them on were 100% honey locust though) Can't say that I've run across larva in a locust before. It's usually carpenter ants that do in most of the locust in my area...or so it seems. Perhaps the ants move into the beetles galleries? I think the weather has them beetles fooled though. They were for sure laying eggs. That's not supposed to happen until fall per my reading.
Seeing as my buddy will be burning some of this wood in the fall (yes, he's behind), take comfort knowing that their larva will likely die a fiery death.
I had the same experience a year ago. I had rung several honey locust. There were hundreds of them borers on the locust I had cut and the trees still standing that I had rung. I sent a video to our states entomologist. He said its normal, he said they sense when the tree is struggling and they attack. They really worked over the outside 1" of the trees. After processing 5 cord of that locust this past winter I never saw a larva. It like they hatched out in the fall. I had rung all them trees in January, a neighbor rung some in the middle of last summer and his don't have a big hole in them. I'm guessing they need the moisture of the wood to be at a certain point? I dont know but I won't be ringing locust in the winter months again. I'm going to try doing it in the summer and see what happens. The reason for ringing the honey locust is it helps with the thorns, if the tree has been dead for awhile the thorns burn easy. I use a weed burner while tree is still standing. If the thorns are dense the flames will climb 30' and burn the thorns off the tree. That way they are contained to a small area. Just explaining why I ring them! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You can see the damage on the outside edge. They eat some BTU's for sure Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Must have been creepy, all those borers wriggling around! Good they were all gone by the time you were cutting and splitting.
Was back at the site last night and they were doing their thing. Bout 12 of em fighting for a spot on a 2" diameter branch about 6' long.
