Powder in my desk
 

Hi there,

I got a question I do not know the answer for, maybe some of you can help
me.

I have a desk made from Mahogany and now some powder is coming out (worms or
insects eating it).

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Thanks for the help.

Albert
P.s. The shop no longer excists (auction)

I had read somewhere that the benefit of kiln dried lumber is that it
kills critters living or waiting dormant in the wood. I have no
experience with this but I would carry the furniture out to my well
ventilated garage and make a 4 mill poly tent over the furniture. I
would postion the drawers open and would place sticks around the tent
so it drapes over the desk allowing for free air flow. I would spray
bug spray in the tent. Repeat many times in an attempt to kill the
critters. They do the same thing for termites. Huge tent over a house
and blast the house with nasty poisons.

"Anti-Virus" wrote:

Hi there,

I got a question I do not know the answer for, maybe some of you can help
me.

I have a desk made from Mahogany and now some powder is coming out (worms or
insects eating it).

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Thanks for the help.

Albert
P.s. The shop no longer excists (auction)

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 11:13:27 +0100, "Anti-Virus"
wrote:

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Buy some commercial bug killer _for_furniture_ (finish safe). This
should come in a squeeze bottle with a variety of long thin nozzles.

Test it against a non-obvious piece of the finish.

Go round every hole and give it a squirt.

Then keep watching, because you've only seen a fraction of the
critters that are in there. Tunneling is done by _larvae_, not adult
critters - they're laid in there as eggs, then they tunnel around a
lot before emerging and flying off. Usually they break out in spring -
if these flight holes are visible now, they've probably flown and gone
anyway. You may have other attacks, if these adults decide to lay
their own eggs in other pieces.

Check all your other furniture for attack.

Repeat your checks every spring.


If you care, you can try to identify the species from the size and
shape of the holes. For some species this is useful to know, because
they might be a species that just attacks green (standing) timber.
Others (like powder post beetle) are much more troublesome, because
the adults will attack and re-infest other pieces of furniture.

--
Smert' spamionam

if you are in a part of the country where termites are a problem, call a
termite place and they ought to be able to put it in a house/garage/room
being treated

"Anti-Virus" wrote in message
...
Hi there,

I got a question I do not know the answer for, maybe some of you can help
me.

I have a desk made from Mahogany and now some powder is coming out (worms
or
insects eating it).

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Thanks for the help.

Albert
P.s. The shop no longer excists (auction)

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 11:13:27 +0100, "Anti-Virus"
wrote:

Hi there,

I got a question I do not know the answer for, maybe some of you can help
me.

I have a desk made from Mahogany and now some powder is coming out (worms or
insects eating it).

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Thanks for the help.

Albert
P.s. The shop no longer excists (auction)

A friend had this problem with worms eating away at an oak book
shelve... he did the plastic drape thing and set off a bug fogger
thing under the plastic... repeated it a few hours later and claimed
to never had a reoccurrence in the 2 years since..
As always, YMMV, especially since I didn't see this, only was told
about it..

I don't have any practical experience with your problem but I would
strongly suggest that you remove the desk from your house BEFORE the problem
infests the REST of your woodwork. They do tend to migrate.

fwiw, Tom

--
Remove the 'p' from 'shaw' to e-mail me.
"mac davis" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 11:13:27 +0100, "Anti-Virus"
wrote:

Hi there,

I got a question I do not know the answer for, maybe some of you can help
me.

I have a desk made from Mahogany and now some powder is coming out (worms
or
insects eating it).

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying
the
paint of my desk.

Thanks for the help.

Albert
P.s. The shop no longer excists (auction)

A friend had this problem with worms eating away at an oak book
shelve... he did the plastic drape thing and set off a bug fogger
thing under the plastic... repeated it a few hours later and claimed
to never had a reoccurrence in the 2 years since..
As always, YMMV, especially since I didn't see this, only was told
about it..

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:37:05 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 11:13:27 +0100, "Anti-Virus"
wrote:

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Buy some commercial bug killer _for_furniture_ (finish safe). This
should come in a squeeze bottle with a variety of long thin nozzles.

Test it against a non-obvious piece of the finish.

Go round every hole and give it a squirt.

Then keep watching, because you've only seen a fraction of the
critters that are in there. Tunneling is done by _larvae_, not adult
critters - they're laid in there as eggs, then they tunnel around a
lot before emerging and flying off. Usually they break out in spring -
if these flight holes are visible now, they've probably flown and gone
anyway. You may have other attacks, if these adults decide to lay
their own eggs in other pieces.

Check all your other furniture for attack.

Repeat your checks every spring.


If you care, you can try to identify the species from the size and
shape of the holes. For some species this is useful to know, because
they might be a species that just attacks green (standing) timber.
Others (like powder post beetle) are much more troublesome, because
the adults will attack and re-infest other pieces of furniture.


What happens if one would take such a piece of furniture and give it
another coat of finish? I have in mind a finish like poly, not oil.
I'm thinking the barrier of the poly resin may keep bugs inside to
die. What do you think?

Lazarus Long writes:


What happens if one would take such a piece of furniture and give it
another coat of finish? I have in mind a finish like poly, not oil.
I'm thinking the barrier of the poly resin may keep bugs inside to
die. What do you think?

I think any bug that can chew through an inch of wood will have no
trouble chewing through a couple of microns of poly resin.

scott

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 22:41:05 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

I think any bug that can chew through an inch of wood will have no
trouble chewing through a couple of microns of poly resin.

That's better than anything I'd have said ! 8-)

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 16:15:02 -0600, Lazarus Long
wrote:


What happens if one would take such a piece of furniture and give it
another coat of finish? I have in mind a finish like poly, not oil.
I'm thinking the barrier of the poly resin may keep bugs inside to
die. What do you think?

I think a problem most of us have is thinking of various pests having
systems like ours, and trying things that would kill small humans,
such as the poly to either kill them with fumes or cut of their air
supply..
Saw a pest control commercial the other night that said ants can live
for days under water!!

Don't know about this one, maybe urban myth, but I've heard about bagging
the piece and running a hose from the car exhaust to the bag. CO the little
buggers?

"Anti-Virus" wrote in message
...
Hi there,

I got a question I do not know the answer for, maybe some of you can help
me.

I have a desk made from Mahogany and now some powder is coming out (worms
or
insects eating it).

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Thanks for the help.

Albert
P.s. The shop no longer excists (auction)

Old car might do you better than the new low emmisson vehicles but I
would plan my extermination efforts on car exhausts. Bugs are expected
to survive many things that mere mortals suffer from.

"Rich Coers" wrote:

Don't know about this one, maybe urban myth, but I've heard about bagging
the piece and running a hose from the car exhaust to the bag. CO the little
buggers?

"Anti-Virus" wrote in message
.. .
Hi there,

I got a question I do not know the answer for, maybe some of you can help
me.

I have a desk made from Mahogany and now some powder is coming out (worms
or
insects eating it).

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Thanks for the help.

Albert
P.s. The shop no longer excists (auction)

Anti-Virus wrote:

Hi there,

I got a question I do not know the answer for, maybe some of you can help
me.

I have a desk made from Mahogany and now some powder is coming out (worms or
insects eating it).

Does anybody have an idea how to kill these animals without destroying the
paint of my desk.

Thanks for the help.

Put it in a deep freeze for a week or so? Any moisture in the wood
may freeze and cause cracking, though.

R,
Tom Q.

Andy Dingley wrote:

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 22:41:05 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

I think any bug that can chew through an inch of wood will have no
trouble chewing through a couple of microns of poly resin.

That's better than anything I'd have said ! 8-)

I'm thinking that mixing some Permethrin or something with that polyurethane
might be an interesting experiment, but it would be an experiment--have no
idea what effect it would have on the polyurethane as a finish.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)