Wet/Dry Rot Hyphae in Chimney?

[oursurveysaid]

Can anyone tell what these fine grey strands are in my chimney flue? There was wet and dry rot in this house when I bought it, but the ground floor timbers have all been replaced with pressure treated ones, and isolated from the masonry with a plastic DPC. The timbers have a moisture content of around 14%.

There are a few similar strands dangling from the new ground floor timbers. They all seem to have a tiny spec of wood or brick on the end. It seems there's some sort of fungus using a bit of material as a weight to try and find a water source! I'll be sweeping them away and treating the masonry but I want to try and stop them coming back.

The bricks are old (1880), porous, and the mortar looks like lime and earth! It turns to mud when it's wet.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Lower]

They look like dusty cobwebs to me.

 

[KenGMac]

Good images!

As above, cobwebs

 

[tel765]

Cobwebs.
But why not post pics of the suspicious threads on the replacement joists?

 

[Nige F]

Make that 4 for cobwebs

 

[^woody^]

 

[KenGMac]

Is that a Black Widow or just a Merry widow

 

[^woody^]

Is that a Black Widow or just a Merry widow

Might be a money spider, but I wouldn't know what one looks like.

 

[KenGMac]

My money spider ran off, last time I saw him he was scuttling into my local Bank

 

[oursurveysaid]

Haaa! Thanks for quelling my paranoia. Since I saw my subfloor full of candy floss when I moved in, I just assume everything is rot. I’ll put the chemicals away.