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Insect Enemies of Seasoned Oak 



If tbe destructive work of insects came to an end wben the tree is 

 cut and converted into lumber the damage would be much less than 

 it is. Of the thousands of species of beetles, flies, moths and various 

 sorts of bugs and worms that feed on living trees, most cease tlieii' 

 depredations when the timber is cut; but some go right ahead with 

 their attacks and transfer their activities from the living tree to the 

 seasoned wood, while others that never touched the tree while it was 

 alive, are attracted to the dry wood and become very destructive. No 

 definite line can be drawn to separate the two kinds, for there arc all 

 sorts of rules and exceptions; but consideration can properly be 

 given lirst to certain beetles which live in the tree while it is alive, 

 and which continue to live in the wood after it is seasoned ami manu 

 faetured into finished commodities. 



It should be explained that wheu mention is made of a beetle 

 working in wood, it should not be understood that it is a fully de- 

 veloped beetle with wings and legs— popularly called a "bug." It 

 is not in that form. It is a grub, called a larva, which will .some- 

 time develop into a winged and legged beetle; but while it is boring 

 holes in wood, it is in the form of a grub or maggot, and is popularly 

 called a "worm." Exceptions to this rule may occur, but in most 

 cases the insect enemies of wood do their work while in the form 

 of a grub. After they pass through their transformation and be- 

 come eqnii)ped with wings, legs and other appendages, they are not 

 in shape for crawling into narrow galleries and gnawing their way 

 through solid wood, and for that reason whatever tunneling they 

 have to do must be done before they reach their final stage of life. 



The longicorn beetles — commonly called longhorns — are among the 

 worst wood borers, although there are others that may be matched 

 with them as running mates in their favorite occupation of boring 

 holes in wood. A single beetle may be taken as a representative of 

 the family. It shows what the habits are. It has no Knglish name, 

 but is known among entomologists as Monohammus covfusus. The 

 larva goes to work in the tree trunk, and when the log is sawed into 

 lumber the insect is not in the least discouraged, provided the saw- 

 misses him. He goes ahead with his gnawing and seems in no hurry 

 to work his way to the outside of the plank and escape. He feels so 

 perfectly at home within that he remains, even while tbe board is 

 passing through the planing mill, or. if a stave, while it is passing 

 through the various machines that make the barrel. If the saws or 

 the knives open his tunnel, the chance is that his career comes to a 

 speedy end; but if he passes the crisis untouched, he will go on 

 with his gnawing. 



An instance is on record where one of these insects remained alive 

 and active in the wood of a piece of furniture fifteen years. Another 

 worked that length of time in a door step. A third issued from the 

 leg of a table, where he had lived for more than twenty years, while 

 a period of forty-five years is claimed for another veteran of this 

 family, which deserves the title of Methuselah of his race. That is 

 a very long time for an insect to live. Most of them are very short 

 lived. Some do not live one day; others a few weeks only; most die 

 within a year; the carpenter meth survives three or four years; 

 the locust lives seventeen years; but there is little question that cer- 

 tain individuals among the long-horned cerambycids stretch out their 

 span of life beyond two score years. The worst of it is they continue 

 to ' ' saw wood and say nothing ' ' during their whole lives. 



Some have maintained that the larva lies torpid all these years, 

 that it sleeps like a bear or a groundhog sleeps in winter, and that 

 the ordinary functions of life are not carried on. That may be the 

 case sometimes, but not always. This larva in the door step, men- 

 tioned above, could be heard gnawing at intervals for years; and 

 another is described liy an entomologist, C. O. Waterhouse, who kept 

 track of it for years in a wooden boot tree (an apparatus for stretch- 

 ing boots), where its gnawing continued year after year, although it 

 worked at a very slow rate. It seemed to be taking life easy and ate 

 only enough wood to sustain life. 



The Monohammu.t confusus is not small. Tlic bole it bores in sea- 

 soned wood may be half an inch in diameter. It is apparent that this 



may be very destructive. Such an opening might mar or ruin valuable 

 wood and is liable to be particularly harmful if the wood has already 

 been converted into finished products. The mature beetle is brown 

 or gray and is about one and a quarter inches in length. It has 

 scores of as.sociates which lend it willing assistance in riddling sea- 

 soned wood with large holes. 



The long-horned, long-lived, wood-boring beetles are generally large. 

 .Size alone would usually distinguish them from the beetles of the 

 ptinid family, which are generally small. Though the ptinids are 

 small, some are very destructive. The very name is said to mean 

 "destroyer" in Greek. These small insects have inappeasable appe- 

 tites. They are always eating and they never get enough. They eat 

 almost anything that can be gnawed. They are often pests in sea- 

 soned wood. Their mode of entrance is generally different from that 

 of the Monohammus confnsus, described above, which is in the log 

 and simply remains in the wood after it is worked up. The ptinids 

 may gain entrance in the same way, but they generally enter after 

 the wood is partly or wholly worked up. 



One of these (Anobium striatum) is responsible for the riddled 

 woodwork in "worm-eaten furniture." The wood is full of little 

 rouml holes. These are what coopers sometimes call ' ' seed holes ' ' 

 when they occur in staves. The holes may have existed before the 

 staves were made, or they may have been bored afterwards. Similar 

 holes often occur in old barrels. All may not be the work of the 

 same kind of insect, but the effect is about the same. Paint on the 

 barrel does not seem to keep the insect from carrying on its work, 

 nor does it seem to make much difference what the barrel may once 

 have had in it. It is a peculiarity of these ever-hungry ptinids that 

 their appetilies refuse nothing. The insects are called "seeds" be- 

 cause of their resemblance to small black seeds, and some persons 

 suppose they are real seeds of some plant like a radish or turnip. 

 Their skeletons are so loosely-jointed that the beetles can tuck their 

 head beneath it, draw in their legs, bend their hard wings close about 

 their bodies and they then appear like a little round shot. The 

 ' ' seed hole ' ' in the wood is made before the insect becomes a beetle. 

 It bores while in the form of a grub, but it is possible that persons 

 may see the fully developed beetles in the holes, and thus conclude 

 that the ' ' seeds ' ' made the holes in some way. 



This family has some peculiar if not remarkable children. One of 

 these is the "death watch" (Anobium tesscUatnm), whose ticking 

 in the dead hour of night alarms timid and superstitious people who 

 fear that it is a token of approaching death for someone in the 

 family. The noise is made by an insect about as large as a grain of 

 rice, anil it is hid away in a hole inside a wooden partition, beam, 

 rafter, floor or piece of furniture. It there gnaws industriously, but 

 sometimes leaves off its work and amuses itself by whacking its head 

 against the side of its burrow. That produces the "tick" of the 

 "watch." Insects have no voice, properly speaking, and they make 

 their noises on either "a drum or a fiddle." When they peck on 

 something, as the "death watch" does, it is drumming. When they 

 scratch something, as the cricket does, it is fiddling. 



The "death watch," with the assistance of a trouj) of near 

 relatives, does a lot of damage to seasoned wood. It ruins beams, 

 walls, joist and half-finished or wholly finished commodities. 



Mention has been made of the enormous appetite which charac- 

 -^terizes the members of this family. Most of their destruction is due 

 to their attempts to get enough to eat. They are veritable sharks. 

 The fierce belostoma, which is considered the hyena of the insect 

 world, is not more incessant in his search for something to eat. 

 Take the little Anobium paniceum (one of the "death watches") 

 for an example. His bill of fare is a wonder. This insect will live 

 and thrive on a diet of opium. It is the same creature that sailors 

 call the biscuit weevil, because it infests biscuit casks on shipboard. 

 It is also the "bookworm" that is so often heard of, and it flourishes 

 on the dry pages of Dante and on the wrapping of Egyptian mum- 

 mies. The following list of things which it eats seems almost in- 

 credible, but it is viiurlied for by high authority: blue flag root, 



