Any entomologists here ?

[Lynn Dollar]

I've been finding signs in my smoker wood rack of carpenter ants. But I never see any ants. Carpenter ants leave little piles of sawdust they call " frazz " . I've been seeing this frazz in my wood and on the ground. But I've concluded that its not carpenter ants. Its some kind of boring insect, that eats out a tunnel into the wood, then lays an egg, and it develops into this larvae.

Yesterday, I split a piece of wood that I was gonna put on the smoker and found the larvae. Here's the creature and to its right, can see the tunnel something had bored to hatch this thing.

I've got no idea what this is. There is a variety of cockroach that lives outdoors. And I've found a couple of them dying after they'd eaten my ant bait, but this thing has really long antennae. And there's a lot of these things. I really don't mind them in my smoker wood, boring these holes just helps season the wood, but I think I'd like to know what they are.

BTW, this thing is about an inch long.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

About a month ago, I saw these green bees hovering around my wood rack and they would go down in these tunnels carved by whatever creature that's hatched in there

 

[Brad Baker]

They might be carpenter bees. Check wiki.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

I looked into carpenter bees, but the bees are tiny in comparison. Bee's are about 3/8" and this " thing " is about one inch long.

Its gotta be some kind of wood boring beetle, due to those long antennae.

 

[timothy]

If it's green it might be a cousin of the emerald ash borer.

Tim

 

[Lynn Dollar]

I got a prompt reply to an email I sent to Okla State Univ

HI Lynn,
This is a pupa of a longhorn beetle from the insect family Cerambycidae. Judging from the size it may be a cottonwood bored. But, i cant say for sure until i see it as an adult.
Charlie

 

[Lynn Dollar]

Here's what the adult will probably look like, according to the fella from Ok State, he called it a Living Hickory Borer. He said this bug will use pecan and hickory trees.

 

[D Livingston]

What's the difference between an entomologist and an etymologist?


An etymologist would know.


Sorry, this thread triggered the dad joke part of my brain.