Wednesday, November 01, 2006
From Desk To Dust
Isn’t it extremely unnerving to see your exquisite wooden furniture falling to bits due to an insect infestation? Wood boring beetles and other such insects can cause widespread damage to your furniture literally reducing it to dust. It is important to keep inspecting the pieces of furniture on a regular basis to catch the infestation in its initial stage before way too much damage has been done. Also, there are some preventive measures that should be undertaken. Below is an account of what you can do to protect your precious Amish furniture and other wooden furniture.
Inspection: The first step to management is deciding if there is an active infestation, or if you are seeing old damage. In an active infestation look for borings accumulating in piles near holes or on the floor below, beetles crawling on the wood, or you may hear a ticking sound that is made by some larvae. If there is no active infestation, treatment is not needed.
You should inspect periodically all exposed wood surfaces and probe them for evidence of internal damage. Evidence of attack is more common in attics, crawl spaces, unfinished basements and storage areas. To be certain that the infestation is active, there should be fresh frass the color of newly sawed wood, or live larvae or adults in the wood. . If furniture or other wooden objects appear to have active infestation, they should be isolated immediately by placing in a large sealed plastic bag.
Prevention: Most of the procedures that will prevent attack on wood before it is used are the responsibility of those who harvest, mill or store the wood. However those who use the wood should take precautions to reduce the chances of building an infestation into structures and furniture.
Steps to prevent beetles from infesting wood include the following. Wood should be inspected prior to purchase. Use only proper kiln or air-dried wood. Seal wood surfaces. Always use chemically treated wood (wood preservatives or insecticides). Using good building design such as ventilation, drainage and proper clearance between wood and soil will reduce the moisture content of wood creating less favorable conditions for beetle development. Central heating and cooling systems also speed up the wood drying process.
Control: The following points should help in discouraging powderpost beetle and other infestations. The first thing to do is reduce the moisture content to less than 20%. Rough-cut lumber should be kiln-dried to kill all stages of the beetle. The adult beetles will not normally attack un-infested wood that is sanded and varnished because they cannot find crevices in the wood surface into which they would deposit their eggs. Infested furniture can be fumigated in a fumigation chamber. Surface sprays containing borates will prevent newly hatched larvae from entering the wood. However, this technique is not effective on wood that has been varnished, waxed or otherwise sealed from attack by moisture. If practical, remove infested wood. If not use borate insecticides.
All the abovementioned control and preventive measures are taken by the Amish to give you only superior quality Amish handcrafted furniture. Each piece goes through a lot of processes to make them last for generations. The quality of construction is impeccable. They provide a great furniture experience for years together.
Inspection: The first step to management is deciding if there is an active infestation, or if you are seeing old damage. In an active infestation look for borings accumulating in piles near holes or on the floor below, beetles crawling on the wood, or you may hear a ticking sound that is made by some larvae. If there is no active infestation, treatment is not needed.
You should inspect periodically all exposed wood surfaces and probe them for evidence of internal damage. Evidence of attack is more common in attics, crawl spaces, unfinished basements and storage areas. To be certain that the infestation is active, there should be fresh frass the color of newly sawed wood, or live larvae or adults in the wood. . If furniture or other wooden objects appear to have active infestation, they should be isolated immediately by placing in a large sealed plastic bag.
Prevention: Most of the procedures that will prevent attack on wood before it is used are the responsibility of those who harvest, mill or store the wood. However those who use the wood should take precautions to reduce the chances of building an infestation into structures and furniture.
Steps to prevent beetles from infesting wood include the following. Wood should be inspected prior to purchase. Use only proper kiln or air-dried wood. Seal wood surfaces. Always use chemically treated wood (wood preservatives or insecticides). Using good building design such as ventilation, drainage and proper clearance between wood and soil will reduce the moisture content of wood creating less favorable conditions for beetle development. Central heating and cooling systems also speed up the wood drying process.
Control: The following points should help in discouraging powderpost beetle and other infestations. The first thing to do is reduce the moisture content to less than 20%. Rough-cut lumber should be kiln-dried to kill all stages of the beetle. The adult beetles will not normally attack un-infested wood that is sanded and varnished because they cannot find crevices in the wood surface into which they would deposit their eggs. Infested furniture can be fumigated in a fumigation chamber. Surface sprays containing borates will prevent newly hatched larvae from entering the wood. However, this technique is not effective on wood that has been varnished, waxed or otherwise sealed from attack by moisture. If practical, remove infested wood. If not use borate insecticides.
All the abovementioned control and preventive measures are taken by the Amish to give you only superior quality Amish handcrafted furniture. Each piece goes through a lot of processes to make them last for generations. The quality of construction is impeccable. They provide a great furniture experience for years together.
# posted by sunshinecity @ 10:20 PM 
