The methods and results are given for a series of experiments in drying Pinus radiata sapwood under a variety of conditions, then exposing the material to Anobium punctatum egg-laying. The results showed very clearly that the attractiveness of the wood to gravid females was drastically reduced when dried from green at temperatures much above 35°C. Both simple oven drying and steam kilning produced the effect. Attempts to reverse the effect, or develop it in already seasoned wood, indicated that it was a phenomenon related to the green state, i.e. it could not be induced at any other time, and this in combination with special drying techniques results suggests that it is oxidative in character. On current evidence it seems unlikely that fungi/bacteria have a major role in the effect.

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