Common Furniture Beetle
What is it?
An infestation of woodworm is most often due to the Common Furniture Beetle (Anobium punctatum), and this species especially favours damp, unpolished softwoods.
The larvae usually restrict their tunnelling to the soft surface sapwood and avoid the strong heartwood core, so the common furniture beetle rarely causes any significant structural damage, other than in timbers of a small cross section.
How to spot it
In departing the timber, the adult leaves these round exit holes about 1.5-2mm (<⅛in) in diameter, with a gritty bore dust, or ‘frass’, that contains lemon-shaped pellets when examined under magnification. When the wood is split open, the tunnels usually run with the grain.
How to fix it
Woodworm treatment has two phases:
Any structurally weakened wood should be cut out and removed, and replaced with new timbers treated with preservative. If this woodwork was load-bearing (joist or roof truss) it should be replaced with new timbers that have been pre-treated with an effective preservative such as pressurisation, double vacuum methods or a 10-minute dip in an organic solvent preservative to satisfy the requirements of British Standard BS 5268. Remember to re-treat any cut-ends or joints.
A combined insecticide and wood preservative should be liberally sprayed over the remaining affected area to kill off any viable eggs, larvae and adults in the wood and simultaneously fortify the remaining wood. Clean timbers first and temporarily remove and loft insulation to allow full access to joists if these are infected. Lift every 7th floorboard and cover their undersides and the joists supporting them. Cover electric cables.
Further information and useful links
- Find a Damp Proofing Specialist near you
- Find a Water Proofing Specialist near you
- Find a Wood Worm Specialist near you
- Find a Masonry Repairs Service near you
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