Hardwood Vs Softwood

[ReleasetheHag]

Just as the title says, looking for a detailed guide on telling apart decomposing hardwood and softwood.

I recently went foraging for my A. gigas, Saccharine, and I grabbed quite a few chunks of crumbly wood that already had native myriapods in them (I removed any visible individuals, of course). I made sure there was invertebrate life in every piece I picked. But looking at my pile laid out to air dry after rinsing.. some of the colors look suspicious to me.

I’d rather recollect than poison her, so does anybody have a definitive or detailed way to tell the two apart once they’ve been rotted and chunked up? It’s a long shot, but, it’s worth the try. I’m just not confident enough in my downed tree ID.

Thanks in advance!!

(PS… sterilizing collected moss? It’s rinsed with real hot water sitting in the freezer right now.. unsure of how to continue)

 

[Isaax Critterz]

Rotton wood would hold more bad critters, dry wood would seem crumbly.

 

[The Snark]

If you can't identify the wood only use woods already occupied with a healthy assortment of critters. Let those critters be the canary in the coal mine. No sense taking a chance of getting walnut or other toxic woods.

 

[ReleasetheHag]

If you can't identify the wood only use woods already occupied with a healthy assortment of critters. Let those critters be the canary in the coal mine. No sense taking a chance of getting walnut or other toxic woods.

Yeah! I only took wood that I found other invertebrates in but I’m not very well versed in “bug” ID so I’m not sure who hangs out in what wood. Some of my pieces did have native myriapods in them but ive long crumbled them up together and now I’m just staring at the pile, wondering if I just buy prepackaged decaying wood forever

 

[The Snark]

What is toxic and to what? Some animals are immune to certain toxins, others hypersensitive. The canary in the coal mine approach is best. Animals in at least the same genus seemingly healthy in a given environment.

But to give some idea how prevalent toxins are using humans as reference, have a look:

Wood Allergies and Toxicity | The Wood Database

www.wood-database.com