| Brief Guide to Woodworm |
| By far the most common of Britain's four kinds of woodworm is the grub (or larva) of the furniture beetle. It bores through wood and can damage furniture, floorboards and rafters. Severe cases can cause structural damage, and make floorboards too weak to walk on. But this is rare. Furniture beetle is a pest, but it is easy enough to bring under control and eradicate, so should not be cause for alarm. There are far worse things that can happen to a house. |
| The life-cycle of the furniture beetle |
| Furniture beetles (Anobium punctatum) are tiny insects, just 6 mm (¼ in) long, which fly into houses from the outside. Adult females will lay 60 or so eggs in cracks, crevices and corners of wood. They prefer softwood and plywood that has not been painted, varnished, polished or treated - so typically go for the backs of pieces of furniture and drawers, and exposed timber under staircases and floorboards, and in the roof, especially if the wood is not bone dry. They also have a taste for wickerwork. The eggs hatch and the larvae bore into the wood, where they will stay for between one and five years before pupating. The pupae then turn into adult beetles, which bore through to the surface to begin the whole process all over again. |
| Tell-tale signs |
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The first signs of woodworm infestation are usually a spattering of tiny holes in the surface of the wood made by the adult beetles as they emerge. The holes are about 2 mm (0.1 in) across and very precise - quite easily distinguished from holes made by nails, drawing pins or darts, which are far less regular and betray the fact that they have been pushed in from the outside.
Below the woodworm holes there may well be signs of a fine powder consisting of chewed and digested wood. This is known as 'frass' (from the German verb 'fressen', meaning to eat or devour). |
| Dead or alive? |
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Because woodworm holes are the points-of-exit for adult beetles, the damage will already have been done by the time you notice them. In these days of central heating and better ventilation, timber in houses tends to be dry, which is not what furniture beetles like, so quite possibly your woodworm damage took place a long time in the past. But it is worth checking if the woodworm are still active, because, if so, treatment is required.
So, first clean away any dust and frass from the area. Then wait a few weeks and check whether there are any new holes and any new signs of frass. Spring is a good time to start, as this is when woodworm are most active. If you want, you can cover the infected area with a thin layer of paint, or stick a sheet of paper over it. Emerging adult furniture beetles will bore through this new surface to reach the outside, leaving new holes for you to spot. |
| Treatment |
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If you have active woodworm, you can treat the infected wood with special woodworm insecticides that are readily available from hardware stores. Small infestations can be treated with spray canisters fitted with nozzle, so you squirt the insecticide directly into the holes to penetrate the wood. You can also paint insecticide onto the surfaces with a brush, or, for larger areas, spray it on with a pressure spray-gun.
Make sure you read the instructions carefully and take all the necessary precautions. Because woodworm killer is designed to inflict a swift and merciless death on a living organism, you can be sure that it is not too good for you either. For serious and extensive infestations by woodworm, you will have to call in specialist pest control contractors. In addition, really badly infected timbers will have to be replaced. If you are buying a house, and the survey shows that woodworm have damaged the structural timbers, a mortgage lender will insist that they are treated by a specialist pest control contractor, who, after treatment, can issue a guarantee against further damage for a number of years. Upholstered furniture infected by woodworm may have to be fumigated, rather than be treated by liquids - again, a job for the specialist. |
| Keep it out |
| Any piece of antique and second-hand furniture could show signs of woodworm. This need not cause undue concern - but check that the woodworm are not active before you bring it into the house. |
| The other suspects |
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Three other kinds of woodworm may attack timber in homes in Britain, but they are all much rarer than the furniture beetle.
The house longhorn beetle (Hylotrubes bajulus) is confined almost exclusively to parts of Surrey and Hampshire and tends to attack rafters of softwood. The grubs can bore for up to six years before they emerge, creating a crumbly warren of tunnels beneath a smooth veneer. The powder-post beetle (Lyctus brunneus) has a similar effect on hardwoods such as oak, ash, walnut and elm. It may be found, for example, in parquet flooring, but is also relatively rare. Small-scale infestations by both the house longhorn beetle and the powder-post beetle can be treated by DIY methods, like furniture beetle. The most notorious of all is death watch beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum), so-called because its eerie clicking sound (in fact a mating call) could be heard by those keeping a silent vigil over the dying, and so was thought to be an omen of death. The death watch beetle is found in southern England, and tends to attack damp or decaying hardwoods, such as rafters of elm and oak, so these days it is more readily associated with churches than homes. Death watch beetle can cause serious damage, and should be treated by specialists. |
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