Pun aside, this I've done. I could even hear the worms chewing during especially quiet moments. We put cherry slabs under clear plastic in the sun, then peeled the bark and smashed the larva with mallets. Not sure why my boss didn't want to use borax.
Likely what you'd imagine. They were larvae, small, fat worms with little short "beaks" for chewing wood, just like a grub. It was a very very faint rhythmic grinding, crunching sound that I just happened to notice one day. Almost thought I was imagining it.
Ugh, I hate those things. I spend lots of effort cutting logs, sealing the ends, storing them where they can dry for a few years, and then my spindles are full of wormholes.
(Worst infestation you can get ever, BTW. You can be the cleanest person in the world and still get them since they only want blood. It took two moves and putting everything I owned into an outdoor storage for a summer to finally get rid of them. Fucking bastards.)
It's not that bad if you are in a single house or have decent neighbors. My extended family had them from some holidays hotel and one professional extermination was enough. (That being said, I live in Europe - hollow walls are a rarity)
I heard it's a huge problem if you are living near some slob that is a neverending source of the infestation. If one has a neighbor that sacrificed his body and soul to the bedbug god and refuses to let exterminators in, then indeed, the only possible choice is to GTFO.