Woodboring beetles are commonly detected a few years after new construction. The lumber supply may have contained wood infected with beetle eggs or larvae, and since beetle life cycles can be one or more years, several years may pass before the presence of beetles becomes noticeable.

Details :

• If you have an infestation of woodboring beetles, it is best to consult a professional entomologist before contacting an exterminator.
• The female beetle lays her eggs in the pores (vessels) and checks of hardwood timbers, and larvae feed upon starch and other nutrients in the sapwood. Therefore, if the sapwood has insufficient starch, or its pores are too narrow for the female's ovipositor, the hardwood should be immune to attack.
• Genuine infestations are far more likely in areas with high humidity, such as poorly-ventilated crawl spaces. Housing with central heating/air-conditioning tends to cut the humidity of wood in the living areas to less than half of natural humidity, thus strongly reducing the likelihood of an infestation. Infested furniture should be removed from the house before the infestation spreads.
• The need to treat or immunise sapwood from lyctine beetles is greater in appearance grade products (for example, floor boards and architrave).
• Also, the timber cut from plantation and regrowth forests tends to have higher proportions of sapwood, so that the need for immunisation in the southern states is increasing.

Methods of treatment include :

• Spot application of pesticides; however, most effective insecticides are obtainable only by certified professionals.
• Freezing. Infested furniture may be wrapped in plastic and placed in walk-in freezers for several weeks.

Woodboring beetles are commonly detected a few years after new construction. The lumber supply may have contained wood infected with beetle eggs or larvae, and since beetle life cycles can be one or more years, several years may pass before the presence of beetles becomes noticeable.

Details :

• If you have an infestation of woodboring beetles, it is best to consult a professional entomologist before contacting an exterminator.
• The female beetle lays her eggs in the pores (vessels) and checks of hardwood timbers, and larvae feed upon starch and other nutrients in the sapwood. Therefore, if the sapwood has insufficient starch, or its pores are too narrow for the female's ovipositor, the hardwood should be immune to attack.
• Genuine infestations are far more likely in areas with high humidity, such as poorly-ventilated crawl spaces. Housing with central heating/air-conditioning tends to cut the humidity of wood in the living areas to less than half of natural humidity, thus strongly reducing the likelihood of an infestation. Infested furniture should be removed from the house before the infestation spreads.
• The need to treat or immunise sapwood from lyctine beetles is greater in appearance grade products (for example, floor boards and architrave).
• Also, the timber cut from plantation and regrowth forests tends to have higher proportions of sapwood, so that the need for immunisation in the southern states is increasing.

Methods of treatment include :

• Spot application of pesticides; however, most effective insecticides are obtainable only by certified professionals.
• Freezing. Infested furniture may be wrapped in plastic and placed in walk-in freezers for several weeks.