"symplastless" wrote in message
. ..

"Don Staples" (Salvage Hog)

It appears to have bored into dead wood, and by location and size I would
suspect carpenter bee. They are readily viewable "hanging" around their
bores. If the hole hooks through the center of the limb, I would say
definitely carpenter bee.

First, with the bee inside the wood proves structure is not dead. The
wood is symplastless for sure, dead, no way.

Carpenter ants for one. The tree, when wounded, sets boundaries in which
the ants respect. They go to wood that was present at the time of
wounding
and make galleries. The galleries control the environment inside the tree
and wood products. They keep moisture low and that is to the disadvantage
of the decay pathogen. So, they stall rot in trees and in wood products
in
your house as well. When products are made from trees with many wounds,
the
stage is set for termites and carpenter ants. They know that wood is
beginning to rot. How do they know? Anyway when flush cuts are made on
trees such as conifers, with resin ducts, the area around the flush cut
becomes very resinated (sic?) and resist penetration of wood
preservatives.
When the resins breakdown when the product is in use, the wood is subject
to
decay because the trees protection (resins) has come to an end and there
are
no preservatives in that area. I am not a wood products expert but I do
understand trees and their products. In our area when you see the dust
its
either carpenter bees or carpenter ants. Carpenter bees dust is more
uniform I believe. May not be ants but if it is - they are good for the
tree! The wood peckers come for the carpenter bees in our house. They
found the young bees. They leave long shivers of wood and chips.
Carpenter bees do live in symplastless wood. No other single living
organism house more walks of life than a tree. The only time the wood is
dead is when it is ashes after fire. Always something alive living in the
and part of the wood. Unless torched!

Dead wood, dead as your intellect. Maggots do not give life to a corpes.
Nor do ideas give life to your befuddled thinking.

--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Buttercup
http://hfome.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treefdictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding
us that we are not the boss.
Some people will buy products they do not understand and not buy books
that will give them understanding.