Huge? Wood boring insect escaped

[peteuk]

Earlier in they year my wife noticed a clicking sound from a dining room chair - bought late 2005.
All advice was to stop being paranoid - it's heat expansion and contraction.
The manufacturer said all their wood is treated.
Anyway the chair went quiet....for the last couple of months at least.

Today my wife noticed this (see pics)

chair showing hole and sawdust

• peteuk
• 8 Sep 2009
• 2

hole in chair

• peteuk
• 8 Sep 2009
• 2

sawdust under hole in chair

• peteuk
• 8 Sep 2009
• 2

We’ve found no other holes and heard no more noises.
I’d like to think the insect was in the chair when we bought it and that it was a one off.
(The dining room floor is wooden)
What do you think?

About a week and a half ago we were away for a couple of days and my wife sprayed insect spray before we went (We find the alarm sometimes goes off and we think it’s spiders tripping the sensors)
When we came back there was a dead grey insect on the floor – about ¾” long, ¼” wide. It looked more like a moth than a beetle because it wings were folded in. Unfortunately I didn’t inspect it.
It did not look like the pictures of the House longhorne beetle on the internet because no legs/feelers that I remember were exposed.
Also aren't we too far North for that in Tyne and Wear?
Not sure what else that big could have come out of there.
We wondered how something that big could have been in the house and we didn’t notice. Now we are wondering if the hole in the chair is related. (Unusually my wife hadn’t hoovered in the meantime).

Any advice please?

 

[macfudd]

Watch the film"Relic" .

 

[peteuk]

LOL - THANKS

But I could still do with some advice.

 

[wotan]

That beetle must have been on steroids, the timber looks like beech, was there a pile of dust under the hole when discovered?
I think I would be quarantining that furniture to see if anything else developes.

Wotan

 

[Stivino]

It might have been a woodwasp. I watched one for ages one day drilling into a log to lay it's egg(s). That's the grub eating it's way out when it matures, I think.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wo...s=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

 

[wotan]

Yes I would suspect the offender to be {Clytus arietus} wood boring wasp.

Wotan

 

[peteuk]

Thanks for the quick replies.
The furniture is supposed to be oak
It (supposedly) came from Devonshire Pine via a local retailer

Yes there was a pile of sawdust under the hole - one of the pictures was meant to show that - will try to improve tonight.
The insect we saw did not look like a wasp it was slate grey in colour. Its wings were folded in so difficult to remember anything now. (Of course this insect could have nothing to do with the hole).

If that was the grub escaping, where do you think it went if it wasn't the insect we found the week before?

BTW I think we have what I've deduced are masonry bees under the floor of the dining room which enter via an airbrick but advice from people on this site and elsewhere seemed to think this was no problem.

Any other ideas anyone?
Reading other items on this site suggests spraying may not even be effective.

 

[cmother1]

The clicking you mention sounds like a classic symptom of death watch beetle. They're supposed to favour the oak beams in old houses.
(The thing you found that looked like a moth was probably a moth - loads of dead ones around at the moment)

 

[regsmyth]

If that was the grub escaping, where do you think it went if it wasn't the insect we found the week before?

It turned into a flying thing and flew away. That's what larvae do.

It got in there by being laid as an egg near the surface of the wood, probably when it was slightly softened by damp. In a wood pile perhaps. The egg hatches and starts to eat the wood, and gets bigger and bigger. (You have read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" haven't you?)
In the meantime the wood has been run through a saw, planer, morticing machine and spray booth.
So when grub comes out, he was probably a bit suprised.
Anyway, his/her job then is to find a mate, and a nice soft damp bit of wood......


But I'd be quite curious as to how long had the wood been seasoned, how long is the larva stage of whatever it was?

If it is definately uk timber then it narrows your search. But if there's any chance that it could have been imported, it might take a while to identify.

 

[peteuk]

Thanks for the replies.
A bit of feedback for you:
- I thought what looked like a moth might turn out to be a moth
- Don't think it was death watch beetle - the exit holes for those are about 3mm according to the web. This one's is about 11mm x 5mm
- Don't like the idea of it finding a mate and starting over
- The Environmental Health say they cannot advise anything without an insect
- When I contacted Devonshire Pine about the clicking they said the wood would have been treated but did not provide more detail. (The spray booth I guess)

Would I be able to see an entry hole? Then again it could be covered by the chair's construction...

I think I will have to see if we get another one.
I've read that the life cycle of wood boring insects can be as much as 12 years...

But please give any advice or thoughts as I'd like to know I've not got a more serious problem

Thanks,

 

[regsmyth]

I wouldn't expect you to find the entrance hole - it would be very small to start with, and I don't know how far these things bore before coming out.

I guess the treatment didn't kill the thing. I've used expensive cuprinol stuff that's supposed to kill woodworm, but it certainly doesn't get them all.

I think treatment is more to do with deterring woodworm from laying eggs on treated timber, rather than hoping to kill everything in the wood.

Anyway timber which is prone to woodworm attack will always be vulnerable.

I had a bit of cls 3x2 softwood, it had extensive boring through one length. I found half the grub too, with a nicely planed torso.
Haven't seen anything like it before. But I reckon it's the same as yours. But the timber could have come from anywhere, and I didn't get round to investigating further.

I would say you're not likely to have another one.

 

[peteuk]

Thanks Reg,

Have sent an e-mail toDevonshire Pine tonight.
Be interesting to see what they come back with.

I agree it's probably a one-off though (I hope)