Seasoned Products in the Rough
Seasoned or dry timber in stacks or storage is liable to injury by powder post borers ([Fig. 28]). The conditions favoring attack are: (1) The presence of a large proportion of sapwood, as in hickory, ash, and similiar woods; (2) material which is two or more years old, or that which has been kept in one place for a long time; (3) access to old infested material. Therefore, such stock should be frequently examined for evidence of the presence of these insects. This is always indicated by fine, flour-like powder on or beneath the piles, or otherwise associated with such material. All infested material should be at once removed and the infested parts destroyed by burning.
Dry Cooperage Stock and Wooden Truss Hoops
These are especially liable to attack and serious injury by powder post borers ([Fig. 28]), under the same or similiar conditions as the preceding.
Staves and Heads of Barrels containing Alcoholic Liquids
These are liable to attack by ambrosia beetles ([Figs. 22], a, and [23], a), which are attracted by the moist condition and possibly by the peculiar odor of the wood, resembling that of dying sapwood of trees and logs, which is their normal breeding place.
There are many examples on record of serious losses of liquors from leakage caused by the beetles boring through the staves and heads of the barrels and casks in cellars and storerooms.
The condition, in addition to the moisture of the wood, which is favorable for the presence of the beetles, is proximity to their breeding places, such as the trunks and stumps of recently felled or dying oak, maple, and other hardwood or deciduous trees; lumber yards, sawmills, freshly-cut cordwood, from living or dead trees, and forests of hardwood timber. Under such conditions the beetles occur in great numbers, and if the storerooms and cellars in which the barrels are kept stored are damp, poorly ventilated, and readily accessible to them, serious injury is almost certain to follow.