Thanks for the i.d. Eric. This identification has made a year long connection for me too.

During the winter of 2006, I brought home about 30 cut sections of tree trunk from a Red Oak someone wanted off their property. I wanted it for making fires in our outdoor fireplace.

Anyway, as spring arrived, I was out back doing some yard work and those logs were still where I dropped them in the winter as I hadn't split and stacked them yet.

I was standing bout 30 feet away from them, and I could hear this faint but constant chewing, crunching sound but wasn't sure where it was coming from. I walked towards the logs, stopped and listened again. As I got closer, I realized this munching sound was coming from the logs, it was eerie, like a sound effect from one of those freaky bug based horror flicks.

I pulled the loose bark off of one of the logs, and sure enough, 5 or 6 of these "pine sawyer" grubs came rolling out onto the ground. Obviously, ALL these logs were infested with these little guys. Of course I didn't know what they were then, but I kneww they couldn't be good.

I split the wood a few days later and killed many of the grubs that I found because I figured they couldn't be good for any healthy trees in our yard should they find their way into them as well.

But my guess is, now that it has been i.d.'d, that this bug that eventually landed on my shoulder that same summer was a direct result of bringing home that "free wood" full of Pine Sawyer grubs.

Thanks again for the i.d. and bringing a story full circle.

In fairness to the pine sawyers, they rarely affect completely healthy, vigorous trees. They 'will' follow in the wake of fire, blowdowns, bark beetles, fungi, and other agents and environmental catastrophes that weaken or kill trees. They aren't "good" or "bad," they just 'are.'

*