Woodworms: impact, prevention, treatmen

Woodworm ate through the leg of this chair

Woodworms are not uncommon in antique furniture. If you hear something munching away when all else is quiet in the house, if you see, day in day out, an accumulation of dust at the foot of your antique furniture, suspect woodworms and take action.

The life cycle of a woodworm can be anywhere from 1 to 10 years! The holes, large or small, few or many, are the exit holes from which the beetles leave in search of a new mating partner and a place to lay their eggs.

There are several methods for treating an infestation of woodworms; among them liquid woodworm killers and Bromide are a couple of them. You might want to contact ipest to get rid of the intruders. Ideally, this should be done once every 10 years, even in the absence of ‘symptoms'.

As the world becomes “greener” biological treatments are likely to increase in effectiveness and popularity. Diglyphus isaea, for instance, is a wasp sold for treating infestations of crop parasites. The effectiveness of these wasps to combat pests attacking books and paper proved successful in an experiment run by the Israeli national library. This method has numerous advantages, –the most important being the safety of workers in the treated environment.

When discovered late in the process, woodworms can weaken the construction of a piece of furniture until it becomes brittle and simply breaks. Sometimes woodworms will get very close to the surface of the wood, leaving large soft areas that are easily punctured.

After treating a piece for woodworms it is important to replace the soft wooden parts with new more durable ones and to fill in the exit holes to prevent another beetle from coming along and laying her eggs there.