Hi all,
I’m in the process of finishing cherry stair treads. As I was about to give it a final sanding before staining, I noticed a few tiny holes on one board of one of the treads (each tread is a glue-up of three 3.5” boards). I remember reading once about powder post beetles, and I’m concerned that this might be what it is.
I immediately looked at the other 11 treads and could not find a single other hole. Then I looked through my entire pile of off-cuts, and I found one other piece with holes. Just based on the sapwood/grain pattern, it is entirely possible that this piece came from the same board that I used in the tread.
Curiosity got the best of me, so I cut a cross section right next to the hole. It looks like a channel that was bored by a beetle.
I’m obviously extremely concerned. I’m just about finished this entire stair project after three months, and the thought of finding a beetle infestation at the 11th hour is making me sick. Am I overreacting?
For the record, these boards were all kiln dried from a local hardwood dealer. Is it possible that the beetles had bored the holes, and then they were killed during the kiln drying? Since I already milled these and then found the holes, I was worried that these might have just happened. But when I cut the cross section, I could see that these channels can be fairly long. So I may have just exposed them when I planed the boards.
Is this a common thing in woodworking? What is the worst thing that could happen if I installed the stairs as is? Would I just end up with pinholes here and there? Or am I asking for a much bigger problem?
I’ve attached pics to show what I’ve found (the pencil is there for scale).
