Woodworm: Preventing Infestation

Woodworm is the name of the larval stage of many species of wood burrowing beetles

. The beetle is most notorious during this phase of their life cycle, mostly because of their unstoppable hunger for wood. Burrowing into trees, fences, sheds, homes, or any other wood structures, the woodworm can cause much violence in their wake.

During the transition from egg to woodworm, the ambrosia beetle lives entirely inside a tree or wood structure. The woodworm requires a wood structure to grow in, they are most common in forests or residential properties. Woodworm beetles and wood boring insect use wood as a food source or as a home and often leave signs of their presence such as holes or tunnels within the timber, bore dust caused by emerging adult beetles from the timber and weak and damaged flooring.

To treat woodworm, we have to take the following measures:

Identify dangerous wood. Woodworms thrive in timber with moisture content greater than 20 %.

Locate woodworm infestations. The exit holes are circular and usually 1 to 2 mm in diameter but may be as large as 5 mm across. We can also identify by fine dust around the holes.

In the spring season check for the holes whether they are current and in the winter cover them by painting with an emulsion coat or apply masking tape.

Treatment of house timbers usually requires professional fumigation or even replacement of the timbers.

And at last apply a commercial wood preservative. These chemicals have solvents that penetrate the wood and may be brushed or sprayed on. Mixtures of wood preservatives and insecticides are commercially available.

Special attention should be given to any rough, unpainted or unpolished surfaces, such as backs, insides and bottoms of pieces of furniture, for these are the places where the eggs are laid.

by: Aditi Pareek

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