PestControlBasics
Menu

Identify

Treat

Local

About

Painted hickory borer

Megacyllene caryae[5]

The painted hickory borer is a native, black-and-yellow longhorned beetle whose larvae develop in recently dead hickory and other hardwoods; adults often emerge from firewood in spring, sometimes inside homes, but they don't attack living trees or the wood in a house.[1][2][3]

Group
Insect
Order
Coleoptera
Family
Cerambycidae
US records
30 states
Sources
5 cited
Updated
2026-10-19
Adult painted hickory borer on a hand, a black longhorned beetle with bright yellow bands and a W-shaped mark across its wing covers
Adult painted hickory borer on a hand, a black longhorned beetle with bright yellow bands and a W-shaped mark across its wing covers. (c) Jon Hoekstra, some rights reserved (CC BY) — via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0
On this page
  1. Identification
  2. Look-alikes
  3. Where it lives
  4. Biology
  5. Damage and signs
  6. Health risk
  7. Control
  8. Related profiles
  9. Common questions
  10. Sources

How to identify it

  • Adults are about an inch long, black with bright yellow bands and chevrons, including a W-shaped band across the wing covers, and long antennae.[1][3]
  • Adults are active in spring and early summer, often appearing indoors when firewood stored in a warm house or garage speeds their emergence.[3][2]

Look-alikes

Look-alikeHow to tell them apart
Locust borerNearly identical in color and pattern, but locust borer adults appear in late summer and fall, often on goldenrod, while painted hickory borers emerge in spring.[1][2][3]

Where it lives

It is a native beetle, commonly reported emerging from firewood and logs in Ohio, Indiana and Virginia.[3][1][2]

US map: public records from 30 states since 1990 (GBIF).

Biology and life cycle

Larvae develop in stressed, dying or recently cut hickory and other hardwoods, including maple and oak; they infest only trees that died within about a year or wood cut within a year.[2][3]

When infested wood is cut for firewood, the larvae come along, and indoor warmth can bring adults out early.[3]

Damage and signs

  • It feeds only on dead and decaying wood, not living trees, and it doesn't attack furniture, flooring, paneling or other processed wood in homes.[1][3][2]
  • It can be a pest of fresh-cut logs and firewood, and the beetles are a nuisance when they emerge indoors.[1][2]

Health risk

Purdue, Virginia and Ohio State describe it only as a harmless nuisance indoors.[1][2][3]

Control

Prevention

Don't store firewood inside the house, and keep long-term woodpiles a distance away from it.[4]

Traps and physical control

No controls are needed; just put any beetles that emerge indoors outside.[3][1]

Common questions

Are the yellow-and-black beetles coming out of my firewood dangerous to my house?
No. Painted hickory borers infest only recently dead trees and raw firewood, not furniture, floors or house framing.[3][2]
How do I tell a painted hickory borer from a locust borer?
Mostly by season: painted hickory borers emerge in spring, while locust borers show up in late summer and fall, often on goldenrod.[1][3]

Sources

  1. Purdue University Extension, “Painted Hickory Borers (Purdue Landscape Report).” purduelandscapereport.org/article/painted-hickory-borers/ (accessed 2026-10-19)
  2. Virginia Cooperative Extension, “Locust Borer, Megacyllene robiniae, ENTO-141 (with a note on the painted hickory borer).” www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/ENTO/ENTO-141/ENTO-141-pdf.pdf (accessed 2026-10-19)
  3. Ohio State University Extension, “Painted Hickory Borers Flare-Up from Firewood (Buckeye Yard & Garden onLine).” bygl.osu.edu/node/1223 (accessed 2026-10-19)
  4. Ohio State University Extension, “A Pantry Pest "Morphs" Into Bark Beetles: firewood nuisance pests (Buckeye Yard & Garden onLine).” bygl.osu.edu/node/2108 (accessed 2026-10-19)
  5. iNaturalist, “Megacyllene caryae taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/126148 (accessed 2026-10-06)

Updated 2026-10-19. Built from sourced records. Spot an error? Tell us.