Red Oak and Western Red Cedar Trees

~The authors foot on a hallowed-out Missouri red oak round

Beetles, ants, and other assorted boring critters need a place to live too, I suppose. You'd be hard pressed in the hardwoods of Missouri and Arkansas to find a mature red oak tree that hasn't at least been started on by a band of beetles or ants. Often times when you see an oak tree that's blown down, it's because the center of the tree has been bored out by one species or other of insects. In my experience it's pretty out of the ordinary to find a white oak tree that's met it's demise at the hands of boring insects, unlike it's cousin red.

On the contrary, you'll rarely if ever find a western red cedar tree that's been bored into, much less gutted by boring insects. The one exception is the big Ol' bumble bees we have all over most of the lower 48. They will from time to time bore a small hole into cedar and redwood. You'll typically find these vertical holes on the underside of a log or board and they usually go into the wood maybe 2-4". They don't do any structural damage and unless you make a point to look for them, you likely won't even notice they're there. We have a handful of these bee holes on a few of our house logs, but it's only a few and that's after 11 years of our cabin sitting out essentially in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by 10,000 acres of the Mark Twain National Forest. Granted, I'm not a tree or wood expert: I actually only know what I've witnessed and have experienced first hand the past number of years. I do, however, know that western red cedar trees are far less prone to fall victim to the various and nefarious marauding wood eaters. I've been told and read that the natural oils contained in cedar aren't very appetizing to ants, boring beetles, terminates and the like, and this makes some sense to me. There has to be something inherent to the cedar species that keeps them mostly safe from becoming food and shelter for the various species of destructive insects.

If I run across a western red cedar tree that looks like the red oak I have my foot on in the above photo, I'll take a picture of it and report back on this site. Until then, these hollowed out red oak rounds do make nice flower planters. I suppose one could also find a bowl of some sort that fits inside the hollow and use it as a bird bath or a dog dish. If nothing else, you could split the round a few times with your Swedish hand made Gransfors Bruks axe or splitting mall (I have both and highly recommend you consider getting one or perhaps both of these fine cutting tools for your very own, if you're a wood-hound like myself) and use the remains for fire wood. These hollowed out rounds do make great fire wood!