# Ambrosia White oak



## rob3232 (Aug 11, 2013)

I have a few pieces of this air drying and thought I would post a pict. to see if anybody had any idea what is going on with this log or if they have seen this before. I do see it once in a while but do not know if it is caused by the ambrosia beetle? 
[attachment=29238]
[attachment=29239]




Thanks Rob


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## DKMD (Aug 11, 2013)

It's neat looking stuff, but I don't think it's caused by beetles... It looks more like mineral deposition. In the ambrosia maple and sycamore I've seen, each of the areas of steaking has the telltale pencil lead sized big holes. Whatever the cause, it's interesting stuff.


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## rob3232 (Aug 11, 2013)

DKMD said:


> It's neat looking stuff, but I don't think it's caused by beetles... It looks more like mineral deposition. In the ambrosia maple and sycamore I've seen, each of the areas of steaking has the telltale pencil lead sized big holes. Whatever the cause, it's interesting stuff.



Thanks Dave,
When these dry a little I will post better picts. I'll try a close up of bug dammage for now??
[attachment=29250]
Can you please explain what mineral deposition is? I have never heard that term?? I am almost 100 % this is caused by a bug! Please explain " My friend"


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## DKMD (Aug 11, 2013)

You may be right, Rob... This may be bug induced, but it looks different than the ambrosia streaking that I've seen before.

As for the mineral staining, it's something that's commonly seen in maple and varies based on soil composition. I'm not too sure about the mechanism of the coloring, but I understand that it comes from minerals that are drawn up into the tree from the soil. 

There are a bunch of folks around here who are a heck of lot more educated about wood than I am, so I'm looking forward to seeing what others might say.


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## phinds (Aug 11, 2013)

I agree this doesn't look quite the same as ambrosia staining, and also I've never heard of ambrosia beetles in oak.

Just FYI, you said "*the* ambrosia beetle" and that is not really correct. "*An* ambrosia beetle" would be correct. "Ambrosia beetles" refers to a group of unrelated beetle species that all happen to have a symbiotic relationship with the ambrosia fungus and thus get lumped together by woodworkers, but it's wrong to think there is only one type of such beetles.


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Aug 12, 2013)

phinds said:


> I agree this doesn't look quite the same as ambrosia staining, and also I've never heard of ambrosia beetles in oak.
> 
> Just FYI, you said "*the* ambrosia beetle" and that is not really correct. "*An* ambrosia beetle" would be correct. "Ambrosia beetles" refers to a group of unrelated beetle species that all happen to have a symbiotic relationship with the ambrosia fungus and thus get lumped together by woodworkers, but it's wrong to think there is only one type of such beetles.



school is fun!! I love learning!!


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## rob3232 (Aug 12, 2013)

phinds said:


> I agree this doesn't look quite the same as ambrosia staining, and also I've never heard of ambrosia beetles in oak.
> 
> Just FYI, you said "*the* ambrosia beetle" and that is not really correct. "*An* ambrosia beetle" would be correct. "Ambrosia beetles" refers to a group of unrelated beetle species that all happen to have a symbiotic relationship with the ambrosia fungus and thus get lumped together by woodworkers, but it's wrong to think there is only one type of such beetles.


Thanks Paul for the correction, I did not kwow there was more than one ambrosia beetle. That made me think of searching google for " ambrosia beetles in oak trees " and geuss what... Platypus quercivorus (murayama) aka Oak ambrosia beetle. Asian import considered invasive species. Also, found Oak splender beetle and many more while searching "oak ambrosia beetle in the USA". The last search I tried was "ambrosia beetles in walnut" and .....
Here are some picts. of a better piece from the same log. I still am not sure what bug caused it and probably will never know. As Greg said "school is fun" 

[attachment=29286]
[attachment=29287]
[attachment=29288]


I wish I had more time to research this!


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## phinds (Aug 12, 2013)

Interesting stuff. "Bug poop" as one of my correspondents always calls it, can do interesting things. The ambrosia fungus is not the only game in town.


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## rob3232 (Aug 12, 2013)

phinds said:


> Interesting stuff. "Bug poop" as one of my correspondents always calls it, can do interesting things. The ambrosia fungus is not the only game in town.



AMBROSIA BEETLES 

Description
At least two species of ambrosia beetles attack black walnut trees but the most serious is Xylosandrus germanus (Blandf.). This beetle occurs throughout most of the northeastern and north-central walnut growing regions.

The adult female beetle is dark brown to black and about 1/8 inch long. The immature stages are rarely seen because they occur in tunnels made inside the wood by the adult female. External entrance holes to these tunnels are about 1/32 inch in diameter, and are sometimes referred to as pinholes.

Injury
Young walnut trees up to 8 years old are most often attacked.
I do not know how I did this :wacko1: But here you have some of the info I read today.:lolol::lolol:


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