How to identify and treat woodworm

How to spot and treat Woodworm in your home explained here
How to spot and treat Woodworm in your home explained here

If you spot the infestation of woodworm in the early stages before any structural damage has occurred, it is fairly easy and cheap to treat with a good Boron-based preservative.

Woodworm holes found in timber are caused by the larvae of beetles that feed on the timber. Larger holes on the surface of the timber are formed when the adult beetle emerges from the timber to mate.


How to spot and treat Woodworm in your home

Identifying the presence of woodworm. 

The most common type of woodworm is the Common Furniture Beetle.

  • Damage is easily identified by a peppering of tiny holes in the surface of the wood.
  • It attacks softwood timber and prefers damp, rather than dry wood and the grub prefers plywood to any other timber. However, damp floorboards, damp loft timbers and old furniture where the polished finish has worn off, are all targets for the beetle.
  • The beetles lay eggs on the timber and it is the grubs that actually do the damage.
  • Woodworm leave a scattering of tiny dust piles on the timber.
  • Structural weakening is rare with the furniture beetle, except in timbers whose cross-section is small and there is a lot of damp. 

Effective treatment for woodworm

In most cases treatment of Common Furniture Beetle commonly known as woodworm is fairly straightforward. Any structurally-weakened timber should be removed and replaced with pre-treated timber and the rest treated with a Boron-based preservatives.

 

How to treat woodworm?

  • A safe and very effective treatment to apply that has no effect on other insects or mammals (Remember Bats are a protected species) are the Boron-based preservatives. It is applied as two coats by brushing or spraying and soaks quickly into the timber. It is permanent and some brands have no vapour or smell.
  • There are two other types of Wood worm and with some treatments it may be necessary to identify the exact species. The stuff I use, kills all wood burrowing insects so identifying the exact species of woodworm is not necessary.
  • It also treats timber affected by both, wet and damp Rot.
  • Pet birds and fish are not at risk from Boron-based preservatives, but are from Permethrin based products, (The preservatives sold in most DIY stores are Permethrin based) if you keep pets, particularly fish, Permethrin is lethal to fish even in minute quantities.
  • Read the label and consult an expert if you are not sure how to treat the infected area.

This is the Woodworm killer I use and recommend, I use it to get rid of the common furniture beetle described above and other wood boring insects in building timbers. Also, for the prevention of fungal decay in sound timbers after the removal of all sources of moisture. I/e leaking pipes and roofs.

Wykabor 10 eradicates all types of woodworm so identifying the exact species is not necessary.

It works out a lot more cost effective than branded products available from Diy stores.

Best of all it does what it says on the label.

 


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