Woodworm

All,
Just moved house and found that three of the garage roof timbers have woodworm. Thinking about replacing the garage next year but what can I do in the mean time to stop the spread?
Does all wood in the garage next specialist treatment or is painting enough to prevent infestation of unaffected wood?

Small infestations can be treated with two generous coats of woodworm killer. Furniture can be treated by injecting the fluid into some of the holes with an applicator. Large outbreaks should be treated by a pest control company.



taken from a web page, hope this helps!!

Thanks for that.

I think I will treat the affected beams with the woodworm killer and the others with some preventative treatment. Should keep me going until the rebuild next year.

If you have wormy timbers, the little beetles will fly out and lay their eggs on all wood they can find - in your garage or your house. Also wicker and stuff. I've seen wormy clock cases, furniture, hammer handles, wicker chairs, spade handles, joists, floorboards...

Thanks for your comments.

Do you mean they will fly out as they develop or when I treat the wood? Any recommendations as to how to isolate the problem?
How did they get there in the first place? Do the eggs come on the bought timber?

The treatment won't make them fly out, they'll fly out when they've had time to develop inside the wood. The eggs are very small and the grub develops in the wood. the holes you see are the flight holes where the adult has chewed through to the surface and is ready to emerge and fly away. There will be a lot more damage you won't see until you break or cut open the wood.

Sometimes you buy timber that's wormy, more often it comes in on second-hand furniture or from a tree in a nearby garden.

Roof timbers are a great worry as they can eat it away so it's unsafe, and in Southern England there are areas where the Long-Horned beetle is bigger and does much more damage than the common Furniture Beetle. I'm told they don't like timber in unheated houses that gets below freezing in winter; but with global warming that isn't often the case now.

There's probably a preferred dryness and temperature range, but I don't know what it is. I have the impresion it is less common in houses now because (1) we don't often buy second hand furniture (2) construction timber is often treated (3) there are lots of man-made boards used for flooring and furniture which I don't think they like.

Cheers for that info.

I plan to remove the worst affected beam and treat all of the others.

Sounds like I might be able to keep the problem to within the garage which is the main objective.

I suppose I will find out the full extent of the infestation when we demolish the garage next year.