Insect damaged wood

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cedar eater

Meat Mopper
Original poster
I'm very interested in using wood from my own properties to smoke with. I have alder, apple, birch, cedar, cherry, red maple, and red oak. I cut down a dead cherry yesterday and the core of the trunk had a lot of damage from carpenter ants. Aside from that, it was already well seasoned. I can cut around the ant damage, but I thought I would check whether anyone had experience smoking with insect damaged wood. The bugs are all gone, but do they leave anything unpleasant tasting behind in the wood? Also, I'm assuming that burning too much tree bark is a bad thing, but how much is too much?
 
Shouldn't be an issue. I use hickory and pecan like that quite a bit.

As for the bark, if it's loose, I take it off, if it's tight, it goes in the pit on the log.

Smoke and enjoy.
 
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