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Drying black walnut, bug freeQuestion
Forum Responses
I've air dried a lot of black walnut and have never had any problems with the heartwood attracting bugs of any sort. At the same time, some elm sapwood nearby in the pile attracted the powder post beetle, so there were bugs around. I have had a black walnut log on the ground for 10 years and when I sawed it I saw no bugs in the heartwood at all. It was amazing to me but I think the heartwood is extremely resistant to pests of all types because of the juglones in the wood. Power post beetle (PPB) will get into the sapwood of the walnut. When the bugs are ready to come out of the lumber to do their thing (have sex!) they can and sometimes will travel through the heartwood. I treat all of my fresh sawn lumber with an approved insecticide such as lindane, particularly the sapwood. Heartwood has no food for the PPB. Lindane dries on top of the lumber. So any PPB that is already in your walnut will be unharmed by the lindane until he/she comes out. Once again, that is why I only purchase fresh sawn lumber. If you choose to go this route, use common sense while using lindane--long sleeve shirts, rubber gloves, etc. Hit the shower after you are done. When the lumber is dried, use a DC while planing. Since lindane is superficial, once 1/32" of the surface has been removed the lindane should be gone. Or you can sell your sapwood lumber as antiqued bugged lumber on ebay. Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? ![]() ![]() ![]()
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