Tell tale signs of wood borer
Anyone from KwaZulu Natal will be familiar with wood-borer beetles. They are common in coastal regions especially and throughout KZN where ever the climate is ideal for their life cycle.
Known to attack expensive antiques and even the wooden framework of homes, they can cause extensive structural damage if not kept in check. Fortunately, much of the damage they cause can be prevented by regular checkups, fumigations and intervention by pest control experts.
What is most problematic is that often they aren’t noticed until the damage is visible. Many times the first sign of infestation is when the larvae mature and increase inside and bore their way towards the wood’s surface, leaving the tell-tale signs of infestation, crumbly dark dust in little molehills on your floor or the surface of the wood.
This distinctive dust created by the bored wood being pushed to the surface is known as frass and is a tell-tale sign that you have a woodborer infestation on your property.
An understanding of the life cycle of the typical wood borer is necessary to understand when is the best time to detect and rid a house of their presence.
Adult beetles lay their eggs in cracks in wooden objects, floorboards and timbers. Since they are often well hidden, it is hard to see or find them and so catching the borer at egg stage is virtually impossible unless you, through luck and detailed inspection of wooden objects come across a cluster of them.
Measures to prevent the borer from being able to fly into your home at all during high activity seasons will allow you to prevent them from laying eggs int he first place.
Wood borer eggs vary in size depending on the species, but all are difficult to spot with the naked eye, but finding dead borer beetles or wings on you windowsill usually is a good indicator they have laid eggs in wood nearby.
When larvae hatch they immediately begin to burrow through the timber, making it very unlikely they would be seen. They’ll be hungry and your woodwork will be their only food source. Safely inside the wood, they continue to tunnel and feed for several years. As the larvae mature and increase in size, they ‘bore’ towards the wood surface to pupate, and emerge as adult beetles. Larvae live for 3 – 5 years, boring through timber before emerging to breed.
Some will even bore through books on bookshelves or ornaments on display. Wood borer larvae, if you see them at all are usually a creamy-white colour and curve-shaped. Their presence is usually accompanied by fresh exit holes in timber. The holes would be round or oval shaped with sharp edges and will appear clean and fresh.
It is unlikely that you will see pupae, generally they lie just beneath the surface of the wood from which the adult beetles later emerge. Howver, you will often see bore dust, or frass – caused by emerging adult beetles, usually visible below the infested timber. Tunnels in the wood – also known as ‘galleries’, are often hard to see. Look out for weak and damaged floorboards – in extreme cases, a foot or chair leg going through the floor can indicate a more serious problem or crumbling wood – around corners or edges to roof joists or floorboards.
Adult wood borer beetles emerge from the wood which has housed and fed it. They then quickly breed and take wing to lay further eggs. Dead beetles and small wings are usually found near the infested timber or around nearby windowsills.
