Redwood dealers - bears, tables... have to have their stuff Gassed.

A company (exterminator) puts it in a container and sets off the gas.
The tank is pressurized to make sure it gets into the wood. I also think
a vacuum is drawn first - to draw the chemical into the wood.

I now this as my table was delayed for almost a week. Ya pays your money
and ya wait!

Martin

scritch wrote:
I scored some (almost) free CVG Douglas fir several months ago, and I'm
finally getting around to thinking of its best use. It is beautiful
wood, ruler-straight grain, clear as Lake Tahoe, and has up to 30+ rings
per inch. The pieces were part of an old workbench, and have a few odd
drillholes here and there, but I like used wood a lot.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of bug holes, from at least two
kinds of bugs, given the diameters of the holes. I have had the wood
for several months now, and have seen absolutely no sign that the bugs
are still in there. No bugs, no eggs, no bug parts, no suspicious
sawdust. I have had carpenter ants in my house twice, and know the look
of ant sawdust, but have seen nothing on this fir.

Is there any way short of cutting the wood into little strips to find
out if the bugs are still present and alive somehow?

Alternatively, I could treat the wood preemptively, just to make sure.
I'd rather not use poison, because I intend to use the wood as part of a
dresser. Does anyone know how much heat it takes to kill most
wood-eating insects? I saw a method for killing bedbugs that uses a
temporary styrofoam heat box for an entire mattress. If some reasonably
low heat could kill the bugs, I could rig one up myself.

Thanks!