Took some floor boards up last night to run some cables.

Found this along the edges of the boards I took up downstairs…

From reading online, apparently woodworm can’t survive in a house with central heating. Only my house doesn’t have central heating yet, it never has since it was built in 1963. We are putting it in next month though.

So, is there a way I can tell whether the infestation is active or if its from donkeys years ago? Also, will the central heating sort it out eventually?

I’d like to go with the “don’t worry about it” camp if there is an option?

Have a very thorough clean up (to remove any dust, wood powder etc), leave the area completely alone for a couple of weeks (so no vacuuming or cleaning at all) and then carefully look again for signs of fresh flight holes (where the adult beetles have exited the wood in search of new food) and the accompanying wood dust – if there’s no dust then you could be in the clear.

woodworm can’t survive in a house with central heating

that wasn’t my experience…

Don’t worry too much about it – they will take a couple of hundred years to eat the house. Check for activity, improve ventilation and allow the timber to dry as woodworm only like a limited range of humidities and if you’re still worried, get a can of woodworm killer.

One warning: the cans come with a needle nozzle, which you push into the exit holes so that you can flood the timber with insecticide. Woodworm bore their holes in then out somewhere else, meaning that occasionally insecticide will shoot out of another hole hitting you in the eye. Guess how I discovered this?

we used Boron Powder, its effective and very very safe.

http://www.woodworm-info.co.uk/boron.htm

We’ve found evidence of woodworm in the floorboards at the house we’re renovating.

Where the boards were spongy I’ve cut out the affected section and replaced them with new boards that I’ve treated with woodworm stuff.

It’s an old house and I suspect that most old houses have woodworm at some point in their life.

I couldn’t see evidence of beetles or larvae so I think it was an old infestation.

Builders are in to start next week so will have most carpets up then and can have a look to see the extent.

Can also get them to replace any sections that want replacing and will treat the rest. Thinking that a brush on treatment may be better as I have a feeling if I stick a nozzle in a hole and spray, I’m going to get a load of woodworm treatment in the face!

My 1890s house had floor boards riddled with woodworm, but I’ve just left it as the wood has dried out (by CH) and wood worm larvae need moisture to survive.

They’ve managed to eat about 1cm of some of the joists over the years:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/oGjCoA]Wood worm damaged joists[/url] by brf, on Flickr

we used Boron Powder, its effective and very very safe.

This, paint it on the outside and it’ll kill anything on the outside. Be aware though, you can still get exit holes as it won’t penetrate and kill what’s inside, but it’ll get it in the end. I use it commercially and it’s very safe with kids, pets etc.

Other advice is good, apart from the central heating bit, you’ll still have an issue if you’ve got one the woodworm will just be a bit warmer!

If you live in a quiet area you should be able to hear woodworm, they make a very distinctive scratchy noise as they eat.

Treat with boron now.. no point in leaving it.
It wont kill them all overnight but stops them reproducing

There was me hoping this was a new bikes thread. 🙁

If you live in a quiet area you should be able to hear woodworm, they make a very distinctive scratchy noise as they eat.

😯

we used Boron Powder, its effective and very very safe.

This, paint it on the outside and it’ll kill anything on the outside. Be aware though, you can still get exit holes as it won’t penetrate and kill what’s inside, but it’ll get it in the end. I use it commercially and it’s very safe with kids, pets etc.[/quote]

Maybe a daft question, but there’s no evidence on the surface of the floor boards, only around the edges and only visable once I’d taken them up and the fell apart. Assume that the exit holes are around the edges or underneath, as they wouldn’t exit through the top due to the underlay?
Can I just paint this on the top or do I need to lift all the boards and paint below? (that isn’t something I particularly want to do!)

If you live in a quiet area you should be able to hear woodworm, they make a very distinctive scratchy noise as they eat.

We had that with a longhorn beetle infestation that we had in an old wardrobe.

We had it dipped/sprayed but it didn’t solve the problem.

Took it outside, smashed it to bits and used it to light fires.

We had an Asian longhorn beetle larva in a Chinese sofa Mrs Gti bought off a pal. When the room got “Mrs GTI hot”, which means tropically hot, it woke up and began chewing and what a racket it made. I hunted it down with a torch and chopped out the piece of wood with a tenon saw, unfortunately chopping right through the larva as I did so:

OK, I’m not an entymologist, and my diagnosis was based on the small holes all over the wooden floorboards in a rural house my wife and I own – so the scratchy noise might have come from something else, and not a woodworm!

Can I just paint this on the top or do I need to lift all the boards and paint below?

sorry, you’re going to have to treat all affected surfaces. That means lifting and doing sides / bottom.

Argh.

Think in that case I’ll end up replacing most boards as they tend to tear apart at the edges whilst prying them up.

balls.

be careful of this approach unless you’re prepared to take on a fair amount of work.

I ended up standing in dirt where the kitchen floor had been up looking at the underside of the roof tiles 30ft above me when we decided to lift some floorboards to ‘sort the woodworm out’.

Unless it’s really bad or it’s your ‘forever home’ I’d consider just covering it up with some nice carpet and pretending you hadn’t seen it.

be careful of this approach unless you’re prepared to take on a fair amount of work.

I had to reinforce all the old Victorian joists when laying a new floor. WW had eaten the top off all of them!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/oKbtQh]More joist repairs[/url] by brf, on Flickr

WW had eaten the top off all of them!

I deny this most emphatically.

Anyone know anything about deathwatch beetles? We had one keeping us awake for a few nights last week tapping away for a mate. Set about peeling up the carpet to look for any damage and spotted it walking along the top of a cardboard box. Tapping has stopped but wondering if there is likely to be loads more somewhere munching away. Parts of the cottage date back to late 1600’s so has plenty of signs of woodworm from over the years.

Time for a thread resurrection!
We’ve just started finding a number of small beetles after signs of new woodworm this winter. We live in a funky old barn with an unheated end, so I assume they’re all coming from there. As there are a load of old roof beams with signs of woodworm, I guess we’re going to have to get a pro in to look at it (we don’t have a ladder that long for starters…) – any volunteers? 🙂

Hmmm stranger on the internet invites me to his house to look at his wood! Nope cant see anything wrong with that, i am on my way! 😀

We used the boron powder recommended above to treat the joists I didn’t replace.

Easy to do and apparently safe (although the bag says it causes infertility?!?)