Using elevated temperatures to eradicate mesophilic organisms in wood shows the most promise. Mortality of the PWN and its vectors in wood is primarily a function of moisture content, heat source, time, and temperature. Research by scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology and the Southern Research Station determined that the mortality of the PWN in pine chips exposed to radio frequency waves was a function of temperature. In a subsequent study, they evaluated the effectiveness of radio waves and steam, alone or in combination, on PWN-infested chips. High temperatures are possible in less time by combining steam and radio waves, suggesting that the relationship between these two heat sources may be synergistic.
Elevated temperature can pasteurize or sterilize softwood chips, sawn wood, or logs.
Shorter exposure times can be achieved with thermal treatments, such as live steam and radio waves, that rapidly heat the wood to high temperatures. Drying coniferous wood at conventional kiln schedules is essentially a wood sterilization process. The time-temperature schedules required to dry sawn wood to commercial standards are much higher than those required to eradicate pests in the wood. This has been confirmed by Southern Research Station, Finnish, Canadian, and South Korean scientists. South Korea now allows the importation of kiln-dried pine sawn wood.