Ants in wood

Dave Hoskins

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Parker County, Texas
I was roughing out a decent sized pecan bowl that had some worm holes in it. Thought I might be a really nice rustic styled bowl. One of the wormholes was full of the "dust" leavings that they do. I brushed the dust out and a herd of them little sugar ants came rolling out. Lot's of them. MY MY! Didn't want to use any kind of ant spray on it so I took it away from the lathe and blew it all out with the air compressor. Then gave it a good saturation of DNA. I mean drowned it. Then put it in the kiln. Hopefully that will kill them little buggers. Time will tell. Never had ants hide in a wormhole before. Just another reminder that I have by no means seen it all. :eek:
 
I know its antithetical to your sense aesthetics :D but may I suggest turning it thin enough that the holes are a feature going through the bowl. It can make for a rather cool showpiece even if its not entirely on the practical side.
 
I usually prefer my bowls to be able to be used a serving bowls but a nice display bowl for fruits and nuts and candies and all that is certainly a viable option that I will have to go with on this one. Danged ants!!! But they will die in the kiln I am sure. Thanks, Ryan. By no means am I gonna ditch the bowl. It'll be something somehow. :thumb:
 
Danged ants!!! But they will die in the kiln I am sure.

:rofl: They are a pain aren't they.

The reason I was voting that way was that imho its sort of shot as a serving bowl with the ant holes unless you fill them with something because it'll be impossible to clean. And with the thicker walls filling the holes might be a smidge trickey because you're risking there being weak spots right under the surface someplace anyway. So I figure just roll with it and make a "flaw" a feature. I've gotten a couple of pieces with ant holes in them that looked pretty cool, cleaning out the frass can be a bit of a pain depending on how tightly its packed in there.
 
Yeah, they are definitely a pain! Big time. It will end up being a nice display bowl sitting on someone's table. These little critters did a good job on it. After I get back from running some errands I'll check it out to see what I see. Hopefully them thar ants will have bit the dust in a grand style. Or dull style. Don't care as long as they be dead.
 
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