Check before you spray.
On the left is a baby woodworm, and these little grubs come in all different shapes and sizes depending on their wood boring parents. It is a myth that you need to spray any piece of timber with evidence of woodworm. Most of the time its hundreds of years old.
Most exit holes are made as the adult beetle chews its way out of the of timber and then flies away.
Woodworm can only survive if the conditions are damp and there is available sapwood to eat. Usually, their presence alerts you to a greater and more pressing issue of damp ingress.
Wood Boring Insects are forest dwelling creatures that survive on sapwood, which is the sugary new growth that grows on trees. The sapwood needs to have an elevated moisture content for them to dine. It is also the weaker, sacrificial part of the tree. The heartwood is where the strength is and that’s important to a property’s structural integrity.
If the sapwood is too dry, it’s like trying to eat a Weetabix with no milk! Bleh! Contrary to belief, these insects don’t just fly into homes like locusts and eat your property until it crashes down.
Monitoring saves a lot of money
The notable dust, or frass is a tell-tale sign of woodworm activity, and this is a good red flag to find.
It indicates that you must investigate the section of timber it emerged from and check the surrounding environment. The oak floor joist on the left shows signs of historical woodworm activity that has only affected the sapwood part of the timber.
As you can see, the sacrificial sapwood has been eaten whilst the heartwood section has been left. There was no need for spray treatments. The primary issue was improving the sub-floor ventilation and lowering the oversite which had built up over the years.
If woodworm activity is occurring in your building, then the damp conditions that are rising the moisture contents of the timber will be the first concern, the symptoms of woodworm are always secondary.
Without moisture, the woodworm will die naturally. You can eradicate woodworm activity by eliminating the root source of moisture and a strategically placed fan heater…no spray treatments necessary.
These guys on the right are our fourth generation Death Watch Beetles…yes, we breed Death Watch Beetle to understand what makes them tick.
To Quickly Round Things Up:
- Woodworm is a generic term for all wood boring insects larvae. They come in lots of shapes and sizes, and all have differing dietary requirements. To have any understanding on what is happening in your home, with any woodworm outbreak, you need to first identify the culprit insect and see how it can live. Water is essential.
- Find evidence! Look for little insects over the window cills, lamps and even cobwebs. The Daddy Long Legs, Pholcus Phalangioides, are but one of the Wood Borers predators. When you blanket spray chemicals in order to kill woodworm, you also kill all other living creatures, including the insects natural hunters, Spiders.
- A lot of the time the exit holes you see on sections of timber are from historic activity, sometimes this activity is hundreds of years old, and the last time it saw any woodworm activity was 400 years ago. So, what are you spraying for? And what are you paying for?
- The spraying of solid pieces of hardwood has very little effect on the grubs deep inside. The spray treatments are rarely reliable, penetrate the timber only a few millimetres and doesn’t address the question of how the woodworm are able to survive?
- It would be far easier and cheaper for you to just give us a call, we can arrange a visit, and undertake an actual woodworm inspection that will give you the truth about the situation and give you fewer, and less toxic solutions to help you understand the situation.