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Killing bugs in a vessel

john lucas

john lucas

AAW Forum Expert
Joined
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Cookeville, TN
A good friend called today and has a vessel with bugs in it. He put the vessel in a vacuum left it overnight and it didn't kill them. He wants to know if there is a good way. I don't know what to tell him. The vessel is to large for a microwave which is all I could think of. Anyone have any suggestions.
 
John, boiling is a certain way of doing it. I have even boiled mesquite even though it is a very stable and non moving wood, just to kill the worms. This depends on how far the bowl has been turned at the present. If just rough turned, it would be a way to go. Get an old 55 gallon drum, cut it in half and use a propane burner underneath for heat. Works great. Remove from boiling water after 2 hours, let air dry for overnight and then seal the end grain and bag it for an appropriate time. Guaranteed to kill any bugs lingering inside the wood.
 
I think the vessel is pretty well done but I'll have to ask to be sure. I think he did say it was Mesquite. I'll pass this along to him along with anything else that comes along.
 
bugs

use laquer thinners, if the are holes inject in, if not dilute laquer with thinners about 30:70 % and give it a good covering inside and out , kills the adults , larvae and melts the eggs, used this on all forms of bugs for 3 years , none returned, works on all sorts of lumber,
you can get small plastic hyperdermic syringes from most pharmacies if you need to inject.

regards to all , peter
 
I put the wood in the freezer for about a week. We get some strange bugs here, especially from the furniture stores who import from the far east. This is what they use. The just put the table and chairs into the local freezer storage.
 
Collect some paper grocery bags. Cut the bottoms off all but one of them. Staple them together into a long-enough tube, with generous leakage allowed. Put the vessel inside. Wrap the free end around a car or truck exhaust pipe, tied on with rigid electrical wire. Run the engine for about an hour. For production storage of blanks, use a tent and a lawn mower instead.

I used the first method over ten years ago, on some blank timber. The finished piece hasn't shown any escapees yet. I'd read someplace that termites can hold their breath for about 15 minutes. Probably similar for other bugs.

Joe
 
Joe I had some really good bean soup with onions on top tonight. I'm pretty sure the emissions would have killed them but I'm not sure I want to rig up the pipe to get it to the wood. 🙂
 
Killing Bugs

John,
A small closet, you, the wood, and a . . . gasmask. I don't see the problem...
 
A humorous story about killing a butterfly. My kids were young and we "raised" a (I believe it was a lunar mouth or swallowtail) cocoon. It opened up and we wanted to mount it. I took it in to the vet clinic where I work and asked our anesthesiologist if he had suggestions. "sure, we can put it in the aquarium and run in an anesthetic gas" ( he had killed a kitten of mine a few years back-while he has a phd, he some times had a few pieces missing upstairs-so I figured he of anyone could kill it). After a half hour of "gassing" it looked dead and I took it to my office-on the way the wings started moving-took it back, another gas used, same thing. then he tried pure nitrous oxide. Same thing-not sure what we used in the end-probably a baseball bat😀. Used the car exhaust on a live trapped varmint that was annihilating the bird feeders -the 22 ga got jammed. Gross but got the job done😱 Gretch
 
john lucas said:
A good friend called today and has a vessel with bugs in it. He put the vessel in a vacuum left it overnight and it didn't kill them. He wants to know if there is a good way. I don't know what to tell him. The vessel is to large for a microwave which is all I could think of. Anyone have any suggestions.
Click to expand...

Perpetual question. Forcing dormancy by cooling is the one thing which is NOT going to answer the problem. Mild vacuum or enriched carbon di(mon)oxide atmosphere from something like dry ice or the Treblinka treatment may just force dormancy unless they last a LONG time, as in days. I favor an atmosphere of increased toxicity, unless it can be determined that you have powderpost beetles, in which case isolation for a life cycle and borax on the bottom of the box should do it.

Naphthalene, or paradichlorobenzine, the ingredients in moth balls is my choice. Garbage can, inter for maybe a week and all over. Outside to air out, and a wash down. Methyl ethyl ketone (lacquer thinner) is probably toxic enough too. As would be a strong ammonia fuming solution. None of them will be much fun with a finish on the piece. I would let the bad air go everywhere, rather than trying to put liquid into the tunnels, because it exposes the exterminator to some things he need not be to gain the result.

I would not use any of those big organophosphate molecule dusts or sprays. Too much doubt about persistence and breakdown products. Sevin is a great non-persistent neurotoxin, but as anyone who uses it on potato bugs knows, it has to hit them to have any effect.
 
I have a solution to your problem but your not going to like it. Fill the vessel with gasoline, light match, when the fire goes out the bugs are dead. 😀

Really though, seeing as how you have it on hand more than likely, the use of lacquer thinners or mineral spirits will do the trick. Then recycle the thinners by straining through cheesecloth and pour back into can if it all hasn't evaporated.

Greg
 
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I have heard the local Mesquite "harvesters" submerge the wood in mineral spirits for a period of time. What that period is I don't know. If it is a few worms, you could use the freeze it spray used for electronics, but you would have to see where their chaff comes out and shot into those holes.
 
I would try to just drench it with some sort of Oil finish thined enough to get into the wood most bugs breath through their skin and a good oil coat will kill them the thinner will take care of worms and you'll end up with a nice finish.
 
Joe Greiner said:
Carbon dioxide (CO2), from dry ice or fire extinguisher, merely suffocates by displacing oxygen; carbon monoxide (CO) actually poisons.

Joe
Click to expand...

Well, not so fast. CO asphyxiates hemoglobin-dependent creatures like us by binding where the Oxygen would on our red blood cells. We smother from lack of Oxygen. CO2 "poisons" by serum acidosis at concentrations as low as 5%. That's why submarines carry CO2 absorbent in addition to oxygen.

Primitive insects of certain genera do transport oxygen on Cu rather than Fe atoms in their hemolymph, but the more evolved rely on direct delivery from spiracles to the needy tissue. So you'd really like to get something that blocks a metabolic process or interferes severely rather than just reducing it, if you're looking for quicker result.
 
MichaelMouse said:
Well, not so fast. CO asphyxiates hemoglobin-dependent creatures like us by binding where the Oxygen would on our red blood cells. We smother from lack of Oxygen. CO2 "poisons" by serum acidosis at concentrations as low as 5%. That's why submarines carry CO2 absorbent in addition to oxygen.

Primitive insects of certain genera do transport oxygen on Cu rather than Fe atoms in their hemolymph, but the more evolved rely on direct delivery from spiracles to the needy tissue. So you'd really like to get something that blocks a metabolic process or interferes severely rather than just reducing it, if you're looking for quicker result.
Click to expand...

Close enough for most visible bugs. Anaerobic critters would probably need something more heroic, with input from a formally trained entomologist / biologist.

A flyer from a provider of Internet "services" indicates 50 billion web pages. With a total world population of about 6 billion, there'd be an average of >8 pages for each man, woman, and child on Earth. And much of the "facts" on the "information highway" are probably false.

Your healthy skepticism is admirable. I'm fed up with being "right," even infrequently.
 
Thanks everyone. I just made notes to pass on to my friend. He has probably already tried the moth balls in a bag technique that I got from another site. It will be interesting to see what works.
 
I was cutting an Ash crotch into a blank when I hit the doorway to an ant colony. Big black ants came running out. Threw the blank on the floor and soaked it with ant bug spray. Took about 5 soaking before I got them all. Now, a few weeks later, there is no staining of any kind that I can detect. Actually, I kinda liked the look of it wet.

Burt
 
I turn mostly mesquite. A sharp bowl gouge, lathe at 500 rpm, and wearing a full face mask seems to take care of any worms or bugs. If any bark is to be left on the piece, a good dose of CA fixes the bark and the eggs.😀

Charlie M
 
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