This wood OK??

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
G

Guest

Guest
Hi Y'all! First post here!

This weekend I moved my mesquite wood pile to another location in the yard. I figured I would split the larger pieces into more usable chunks while I was moving it. While I was splitting, I found quite a few of the pieces had evidence of large insects boring into the wood and leaving larva behind. I never saw any of the insects, but I did see a few larva, and lots of "tunnels" in the wood. You think this wood will still be OK for cooking with? I'd hate to throw out all that mesquite, but I don't want to mess up my cooking either. I have more mesquite freshly cut down that I will be cutting into smaller pieces soon....any ideas on how to store it so I don't have more infestations?
 
That's a common thing with mesquite, in Texas anyway.
I can't remember what the critters are called though. The
larva will soon hatch into flies or beetles and the wood should
be fine provided it's dry and hard (not punky) still.
 
Nick Prochilo said:
Keeping it off the ground will help. I wouldn't use anything with larva in it.
Nick what about wood that had larva in it, but now they have vacated?
 
Our mesquite wood gets like that occasionally depending on where we get it from. When we first bring it in and the insects are still in there, you can almost hear them moving around. Kind of an eerie sound. We have used it in a wood stove immediately and you get a bit of extra crackling. When we are cooking, we only use seasoned wood and there are never any insects (or at least not the big ones that made the holes) left in it when we cook with it. I wouldn't worry about a few insect holes.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom