Over the years, we have had the need to fumigate a few orchestrions
in which there appeared to be active woodworm or powder post beetles.
(The powder post beetle, common in parts of America, is one of several
types of wood boring beetles.)  A man who used to have a fumigation
business in Pueblo, Colorado told me the following:

Wood boring beetles have four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult
beetle.  Adult beetles lay the eggs, either on the surface of the
wood or inside tunnels that are already there.  The eggs can remain
alive but dormant for years.  They can survive being frozen, at least
in certain conditions.  When moisture conditions are right, larvae
hatch from the eggs, and eat the wood, creating the tunnels.  The
larvae then create cocoons and become pupae.  The pupae then mature
into adult beetles, which exit the wood, usually in springtime, in
search of water.  The adults often go back to the same wood to lay the
next generation of eggs.

The fumigator used an old truck body out in the yard, instead of
devoting a chamber inside his building.  He put the object(s) to be
fumigated in the truck, sealed the door to make it relatively airtight,
and used methyl bromide gas as a fumigant.  He left objects in the
truck overnight, and provided the service only in warm summer months
when the chemical was more effective.

He explained to me that methyl bromide kills the beetles by depleting
oxygen so the air won't sustain life, not by some other toxic chemical
action.  When he fumigates a building, he seals or tents it and puts
warning signs on all entry points until the gas dissipates after
a certain number of hours.  I asked him what would happen if a person
entered the building while the methyl bromide were active, and he said
the person would feel short of breath, run out of the building, drop to
the ground and die within minutes due to the oxygen being depleted from
the body.

Once the gas is gone, there is no toxic residue, so fumigated items
supposedly may be handled safely.  I'm not an expert, but I question
the safety of handling items that have been soaked with a pesticide
such as Lindane (gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH)) and benzene
hexachloride (BHC), a suspected carcinogen that was sold in garden
shops in the U.S. until its consumer use was banned years ago.
(Further information on pesticides and fumigants can be found by
searching the Internet.)

He also said fumigation with methyl bromide is only 100 per cent
effective on the larvae and adult beetles, and only partially effective
on eggs and pupae.  Therefore, while there is a good chance that
fumigation will be effective, there is never a total guarantee.  The
only way to tell if there are active beetles in a piece of wood is
if you clean the surrounding area, leave the piece undisturbed over
a period of time and see if new piles of powder appear on the floor
underneath.  If you tap on the wood, old powder might fall out of the
holes, which doesn't indicate new activity; the little pyramid-shaped
piles of powder must appear on their own.

According to the fumigator, there are many types of beetles that look
identical to powder post beetles to the untrained observer, so if you
see little black beetles, that doesn't mean you have an infestation.

However, once when I took delivery of an order of quartered white oak
boards from a wholesaler in Denver and saw little black cylindrical-shaped
beetles exactly the size of the tunnels, crawling in and out of the
holes, I played it safe and refused the order.  The wholesaler later
told me that they had acquired a whole shipment of oak that was infested.

I've also heard that methyl bromide can damage leather, which would
include all the leather parts in an automatic piano or band organ, so
I've been careful to have things fumigated only before restoration and
then to replace all the leather parts.

In our restoration, when I encounter an important structural piece that
is riddled with holes, I replace it with the same type of wood with the
same grain density and orientation.  When I find a small piece with
only one or two holes, I sand off the old finish, inject lacquer
thinner containing toluene and other chemicals into the holes outdoors,
let it dry, and fill the holes at the surface with wood filler.  I don't
know if this is scientifically sound, but it would seem that soaking eggs
or pupae with toluene would effectively kill them.

Art Reblitz