Powder Post Beetle -Dinoderus minutus- Worldwide distribution

[Mark Mortimer]

Hello,
I am looking for information regarding the world distribution of the Dinoderus minutus, also known as bamboo powder post beetle, or bamboo borer, or ghoon borer. I am especially interested in if they could establish themselves in New Zealand if accidentally introduced.
Any info would be helpful. I have already googled and not had much luck.
Cheers,
Mark Mortimer

[Mark Meckes]

Hi Mark, Thanks for writing about this.

Re: Worldwide distribution of Dinoderus minutus ?

I would think, pretty extensive, (as long as ships have sailed the seas).

In many cases their presence may be very localized. (?)

Issues surrounding this topic are complex and will require considerable ongoing research.

Need ...

- List of Powder Post Beetles - comparison guide of different species

- Dinoderus minutus - Identification and reference materials

- Worldwide distribution of Dinoderus minutus

- Host plant species of Dinoderus minutes

[Agrobambu]

Hi Mark Mortimer,
I'm not sure if they can go to New Zealand but I'm sure they are here, as you can see, including at my P. aurea poles stock.:mad:I kill them!!!At this moment I'm sure I have no one, but... they are on the air!!!

http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/700/thumbs/C_pia_Dinoderus_all_stages-worms_adults_0302.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=1172)

[Mark Meckes]

Hi Ene, Thanks for showing the pics!
I have some bug pics and info gathered from my travels and will post soon.

First difficult challenge with powder post beetles is to confirm their identification

Are these bugs positively identified as Dinoderus minutus?

Another factor affecting distribution - It appears that this beetle likes to eat other plant materials, not just bamboo.

See quote from this article from - Bambu Ekonomi/Bamboo Economic (Indonesia)

The behavior of powder post borer ( http://www2.bonet.co.id/dephut/isibek2.htm) - Dinoderus minutus in boring bamboo.

"Two years field observation on a powder post borer beetle, D. minutus in Bogor, Sukabumi and its vicnity revealed that the beetle is not only found on wood, but bamboo either. There were 12 kinds of wood and two kinds of bamboo attacked by the beetle. Besides wood and bamboo, the beetle is also able to survive on materials contained carbohydrate such as dried cassava. The breeding test of. D. minutus on various kinds of bamboo in the laboratory demostrated that the beetle is able to breed well. But the beetle showed an optimal breeding on dried cassava.

The powder post beetles species which potentially destroy bamboo are Dinoderus brevis, Lyctus bruneus, Sinoxylon anale, Minithiia sp., Bostrychopsis parallela and Heterobostrychus aequalis. "

-------------------------------------------------------------

Questions to consider in any situation:

Was the beetle endemic (native) or introduced, and already inhabiting other plant materials, or found only with the bamboo?

Is it very localized or wide spread?

Mark

[Agrobambu]

Hi Mark!

:rolleyes: Do not forget! I'm biochemist not biologist! :) I'm not sure if my pics are D.minutus ... but I'm sure that they do the same kind of injuries on the bamboos because I saw them working in different places here in Brazil.
I got this pics from my stock of P.aurea but they go to D.gianteus, B.vulgaris and B.tuldoides too. I visit Prof. Marco Pereira at University from Bauru-SP/Brazil last jun/8, and he told me that when he is cutting the bamboos(D.gianteus/Guadua/Others)on the eletric saw, to his research, thousands of D.minutus come flying from ????From were they come?- A good question.
To a better ID I will send these pics to him to compare with these bugs. After I will return to you with a better answer.
If possible send me pics of this others bugs listed.
Bye,
Ene

[Agrobambu]

Hi Marks!
(Mortimer & Meckes)
All I have about this beetle is:
Phylum:Artrhopode
Class:Hexapoda
Order:Coleoptera
Family:Bostrichidae
My pics are not so clear like the figure of D.minutus at on the site:www.ento.csiro.au-attached- but now I'm sure that my bugs are D.minutus.http://www.ento.csiro.au
I hope to be usefull, because at this site from CSIRO of the Australian Governmet-Dept of Agriculture-Fisheries & Forestry -can probaly answer some questions from M.Mortimer at your 1th post.
Bye,
Ene

[asnor69]

Dear fellow bamboo enthusiasts,

I visited a furniture restoration company in Malaysia. They said that powder post beetle was a thing of the past. They introduced me to a liquid that helped them solve their powder post beetle problem. I was informed that it was a plant extract but declined to reveal the plant name. This plant extract act as deterrant, but not kill the pest. Even infected wood or bamboo can be cured. They dip the infected items in the liquid mixed with water (1 to 10 ratio), then let it dry. Usually the results can be seen within 24 hrs. They let me to buy a little of the liquid after a very hard persuassion.

Anyone with the knowledge of the plant extract that can deter these lovely bugs please enlighten me.

(Discuss at Bamboo Preservation and Treatments Forum > Plant extract insecticide for Powder Post Beetle? (http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1521))

[minhthien]

Hi Mark Mortimer,
I don't know if D. minutus occured in my country. Hopefuly it has some information from VN for you.
Fortunately, I have brief information published in "IEE Guides to Insects of Important to Man" by RG Booth, ML Cox and RB Madge, International Institute of Entomology (An Institute of CAB International), Tome 3 Coleoptera. The University Press, Cambridge. 384p. The authors described as:
"Dinoderus minutus (Fab.), 2-3mm.
This pest species in pantropical, developing mainly in bamboo, but sometimes in maize, Beeson & Bahtia (1937) described its life cycle.
Dark brown w/ disc of elytra red. Ant. 10-seg., w/o long setae, clud segs slithly transverse. Head w/ short setae across clypeus, frons densely punctate. Pronotum coarsely asperate anteriorly, densely punctate posteriorly, front margin regularly tooth (median pair of teethmore widely separated), sometimes joining up w/ lateral margin, base w/ pair of fovae. Elytra over one & 1/2 time lenght of pronotum, irregularly punctate, w/ short, erect setae all over; declivity w/ ocellate pnuctures. Tarsi shorter than tibia. D. brevis Horn is similar to D. minutus, but the ant. 11-segs & the elytra are shorter. It was originally Oriental but it is becoming widespread. In D. bifoveolatus Wollaton, the pronotum is bifoveolate basally, but the elytra are not setose basally & the ant. bear long setae on seg. 1 and 2. It is widwspread in the tropics, but probably originated in Africa. Vrydagh (1955) gave a key to the species of Dinoderus Stephens and the closely related Dinoderastes Lesne.
Hopefully it is useful for you.
Minh Thien

D. minutus is common in Vietnam, harms bamboo products but it is not listed in plant quarantine pests

[Mark Mortimer]

Thank you very much Minh Thien,
That was very interesting.
I am still trying to find out the minimum temperatures that the PPB can stand.
Regards,
Mark

[Angel]

Hi,

Sometimes bamboo people say that Guadua sp. are not prone to be attacked by PPB. Is real also that I'm making some bad press to Guadua chacoensis, an elegant bamboo that grows here in Misiones Argentina, Parque Nacional Iguazú. Elegant if you see it not closely, because in a few moments, thorns will change your ideas.
Attaching are images of Guadua chacoensis after a time, A focus of PPB in my workshop!!! (pre worked as marimba bars)
Look that in the middle of one image, might see a bug.

Also some Bambusa balcoa (presumibily), hardly attacked by them.

[Angel]

More about the PPB:

I'm attaching a photo of a local PPB (Argentina), think that is the same than in other parts of the world.
These bugs are inside a glass flask, with different species bamboo pieces to force to feed them. They didn't touch any bamboo, and died!!!!

Also, the PPB way: is a ring of bamboo sectioned and folowing the ppb route inside it.

I use to treat bamboo with trementine esence (turpentine), that goes inside bamboo and keep good odor. The image called trementina shows a cut of bamboo treated, several cm above the top. Yellowish part is the trementine inside bamboo.
My actual formula is to dilute some mothballs in queroseno or mineral turpentine, and then combine it with pine, vegetal trementine.
This combination kill the adults (at least) by contact, and its odor prevents the attack.
Anyway, I think that aren't a 100% sure method. Sometimes, a piece of bamboo is attacked, and several that are together no.
For example, the attacked marimba bar that I posted was fully invaded, and the neighbor bars has no any attack at all. The thing is more complicate since I use the same bamboo culm for all the bars!

[Agrobambu]

Angel

Good tip about turpentine! I wil test.
Will be interesting to know if this product would be the same vegetal extract from Malasya mencioned by asnor69 post-sep/10/2005.(Water diluted?-Probably it is not the same).
Questions to Angel - Do you had used this product in big pieces? It is not expensive? Can you give us ratio of both, product/solvent?
Bye,
Ene
www.bamboofount.com.br

[Angel]

Vegetal turpentine (esencia de trementina in Spanish) is not the Malaysia product, is very old, and expensive indeed for big pieces.

Is an extract from pine resin, clearly recognizable by the odor. Very refined, is the same used for dilution of some fine oil paints, sold in bottles of about 50cc.
Fresh product is transparent and fluid. When old, it gets an ambar color, and becomes sticky.

The cost here is, dont remember exactly, but around 4-5 dollars per litre.

[Mark Meckes]

It's good to see this subject has been revisited!

From my observations, the bamboo borer that is appears more commonly in temperate parts of the US is the Bostrichid Powderpost Beetle
See pic:
760

At least I have not seen D. minutus except maybe once from a piece of bamboo from Florida.

Here's a link about Powderpost Beetles and Other Wood-Infesting Insects, comparing anobiid beetles with Bostrichid beetles.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IG119

I began to research the subject of PPB's a while ago and will go through my notes and photos I've taken soon.

Mark

[Angel]

Great stuff, Mark!!
Is difficult for a no expert to clasify an insect, looking at very small differences.
For the photos in the page of Univ of Florida, the beetle we have here is more similar to
Anobiid powderpost beetle, being Bostrichid more elongated.
But following your photo...makes me doubt.
Anyway, both seem to be dangerous and have to be destroyed before enter into bamboo.
Seems that all are members of bostrichid family.

[Mark Meckes]

Yes, you are right that the Bostrichid Powderpost beetle and Dinoderus minutus are both in the Family: Bostrichidae

Searching for information about the Bostrichid beetle is very confusing because the species names are rarely included with powderpost beetle information. :(
Also much information about powderpost beetles is about other bugs not related to bamboo and most experts in the field of entomology are not familiar with bamboo bugs, so this means that we have to learn about ALL bugs as we research this topic, and try and sift through the data to find information specific to bamboo.
There is much work ahead!

From what I can determine ... Bostrichid Powderpost beetle can also include: Bostrichus, Bostrychoplites and Bostrychopsis species.
I am still trying to verify the species name of the beetle I photographed in my previous post.
I am sorting through my photos and will post them at Bamboo Flora in the next few days and weeks.
A gallery section has been started for Bamboo Post Harvest Pests (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=564) and it will soon be expanded for different species.

Meanwhile, FYI here is a great site with excellent photos:
The Bamboo borer
Dinoderus minutus (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae)
http://www.padil.gov.au/viewPestDiagnosticImages.aspx?id=100

Distribution:
Regions
Africa
Australasian - Oceanian
Central and South America
Cosmopolitan
Europe and Northern Asia
Mediterranean Basin
South and South-East Asia
USA and Canada

Bostrichidae
http://www.padil.gov.au/browseSpecies.aspx?menu=s1&group=1&taxa=Bostrichidae&o=1&id=5

See this attachment that describes Powderpost Beetle characeristics for 3 different types
761

I don't think the size reference is completely accurate but the comparison info is useful.

Mark

[Angel]

Thanks Mark for valuable info!

Attached are photos of Phyllostachys viridis slightly infested with PPB, and treated with trementine+naphtalene.
Just sprayed the mix into bamboo.
Dinoderus goes out and die in a few minutes.

Sometimes, PPB return. A good tip would be to know the time that the insect demands to grow from the egg, then larve, to beetle. I always see the beetles, except when find larves out by cracking the bamboo.

Knowing the time of developing, maybe it should be combated in the same way as other plagues like human louses or termites, by applying the plaguicide at the exact time when the insect is less resistant.

[Agrobambu]

Mark/Angel
See thread and photos: Chlorophorus annularis - Bamboo Longhorn Beetle - Brasil (http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2395)

[doc harmony]

When i was rebuilding a 1760s log cabin in virginia I discussed treating the logs with a UVA archeologist. He stated that they used a combination of three substances that was a cure all for wood. equal parts of turpentine, boiled linseed oil and ? Now this is the stickler that drives me nuts. I have never remembered the third. It was too expensive for the log structure but would not be for the bamboo. "Boiled" linseed oil was important and he stressed this. Chemically the turpentine would be a bug killer, solvent and carrier vehical to drive deep into the wood. I will google this for third mystery ingriediant and if anyone knows please add post.

Thanx DOC...........
addendum ....just googled it as <"wood preservative" turpentine, "linseed oil">
1) USDA Forest Products Laboratory: 1 ounce of paraffin wax, 1 gallon less 1 2/3 cups of turpentine, 1 1/2 cups of boiled linseed oil.
2)Swedish recipe :"equal parts pine tar", boiled clean linseed oil and turpentine.

PS have lots of "cane" in North carolina near Asheville and want to play with it. Have a close buddy with monster black bamboo. He makes flutes.(out of wood)