Woodworm – what to do?

OK – so I’ve got woodworm in a roof support of our garden terrace. I’ve read all the stuff on line about how long they stay burrowing in the wood and so on and how usually by the time you spot it, they have long gone. However, these are burrowing out all the time at the moment. The timber is about 8 years old, so they could have been burrowing through it since it was cut (and not properly dried / treated).

At first I was not overly concerned as it was only one piece of timber and it wasn’t bearing much weight. However, they’re now popping out of another piece. I’m also slightly concerned as our house is about 80% wooden in its structure and the terrace adjoins it.

Any STW solutions (preferably safe, effective, practical ones that don’t involve paying ‘a man’ lots of money)?

Get a guy to treat it. It is not that expensive.

Paint some boron gel on there

It all kind of depends on what sort of ‘woodworm’ you have and how extensive the infestation is. You don’t mention whether it is a soft or hard wood beam in the roof support. If is is fairly modern is likely to be a softwood which means it could be one of a couple of different species of wood boring beetle doing the damage. It is only with really old timbers that you need to worry about the species that can be associated with mould and rot.

If the damage is only in a few timbers it may be worth trying to deal with it yourself using something like Barrattine Woodworm Killer. You can paint it on and it should do the job for a good few years. It can be sprayed but makes a hell of a mess and it stinks like hell.

If you’re getting a man in to do it you have two choices. A local pest controller will be able to do it but not technically to a standard that a surveyor would be happy with. For that you need to look at somebody who is a member of the Property Care Association (PCA).

As a non-member of the PCA I painted a similar product onto a few beams for a regular customer earlier today and it only cost them £40. Sadly my entire van now smells of woodworm killer as something must have leaked 🙁

It’s in soft wood. I’m guessing if I paint something on myself, I’ll have to strip back the varnish first so it soaks in?

To be honest ‘woodworm’ is an ill-educated guess. The bore holes they’re leaving a way bigger than anything I’ve seen on old furniture. Perhaps my kids have nicked my cordless drill…

It’s in soft wood. I’m guessing if I paint something on myself, I’ll have to strip back the varnish first so it soaks in?

It may help. I only tend to get asked to deal with very old, very dry bits of wood when doing treatments and the stuff I use just sinks right in. I use a chemical that you can’t buy in the shops but it works on similar lines to the DIY grade stuff.

Most of the smaller wood boring beetles make holes up to about 2mm in diameter. The House Longhorn Beetle can leave oval shaped holes up to 5 – 9mm in size. If you’re getting holes that big I would suggest getting a specialist in to take a look as it could be a sign than the entire beam is borked internally.