What is Woodworm - In a nutshell?

There are numerous creatures that ‘eat’ wood, however ‘woodworm’ is usually associated with the common furniture beetle (Anobium Punctatum).

The ‘worm’ refers to the larva stage. These beetles are able to fly and could enter a property via windows/doors or on occupants clothes if one has been walking in woods for instance.

This small, 2.5 – 5.0mm long reddish to blackish brown beetle lay their eggs, around 80 in number, in small cracks, crevices in floor boards for instance. The eggs hatch after 4-5 weeks. The larva break through the bottom of the egg case and begin tunnelling into the timber, usually with the grain. As the larva grow the tunnelling or galleries increase in size and will on occasions run across the grain.

The galleries become filled with loosely packed gritty bore dust consisting or oval or cylindrical pellets and granular debris. Eventually the larva becomes fully grown and will be about 6mm long. The larva forms a pupal chamber rear to the surface about 6-8 weeks before emerging through a flight hole about 1.5mm in diameter.

Their life cycle can be as short as a year however it is usually up to 3-4 years. Older dwellings often have infestations in floor timbers, under stairs cupboards and occasionally in roof voids where flight holes would be clearly visible. Severe infestations can result in structural weakness to floorboards and joists.

It is the fashion nowadays to strip floor boards and then stain/varnish them. The stripping of the top layer of the boards often reveal the galleries beneath giving the appearance of the infestation being perhaps more severe than it actually is.

An infestation is usually confined to sapwood however circumstances such as dampness, slight fungal or bacterial activity could enable attack to extend into heartwood.

Remedial treatment by way of chemical application by an appropriate company is usually easily carried out by low pressure spraying.

Chemicals applied to larger timbers would not be absorbed to their centres and therefore the larva would continue to go through their life cycle eventually coming to the surface and emerging through the chemical barrier. One would therefore perhaps note some activity after treatment for a while but it would soon die out.

The flight holes would tend to be always visible.