Woodworm
There are three types of woodworm in the UK. The common Furniture Beetle, the House Longhorn Beetle and Death Watch Beetle. The last two are normally only found in the south of England leaving the common Furniture Beetle as the main cause of woodworm destruction in Scotland. Other less common wood boring insects can also make an appearance and you should seek our professional advice if you are unsure.
Damage by the furniture beetle is identifiable by a peppering of tiny holes in the surface of the wood. These holes are in fact emergence holes meaning that the adult beetle has emerged from and left the timber after spending its time tunneling through it as a grub. The furniture beetle attacks softwoods leaving 1-2mm exit holes. It prefers damp rather than dry wood and the grubs will head for, and stay in, plywood for longer than any other timber. Damp floorboards, damp loft timbers and old furniture, were the polished finish has worn off, (the furniture beetle prefers unfinished wood like old floorboards and loft rafters) are good targets for the beetle. The beetle lays its eggs on the timber and the grubs do the burrowing and tunnel about in the timber. With active woodworm there is a scattering of tiny dust piles on the timber. These are called frass. Structural weakening is rare with the furniture beetle except in timbers whose cross section is small and there is a lot of damp. In older houses for example, where the floor joists are near the ground and ventilation may have been blocked, floorboards may suffer structural damage.
Once the grubs leaves the timber, the outbreak will be classed as inactive. However, they will often return and lay fresh eggs, ready to start the cycle again. Biokil-Crown recommend that any sign of woodworm activity, whether active or inactive, treatment is carried out. If treatment has been carried out previously, within the last 30 years, retreatment is not required.
To treat woodworm, affected and surrounding timbers are sprayed with an anti-insecticide solution. Applied by pressure spray for maximum effect and coverage by our skilled staff. If woodworm is found in roof timbers, these need to be cleaned down of all dust and cobwebs to ensure that no areas are left untreated. Any insulation within the loft space must be lifted prior to treatment. It may be necessary to lift floorboards in affected rooms to give access to joists and underside of floorboards.
It is not sufficient to treat woodworm in isolation. For instance, if woodworm is found to be infecting the floorboards in a small corner of a room, all the floorboards and bare softwood timbers in the room will require to be treated. The returning beetle will affect other timbers (by laying eggs) if repelled from the treated timbers by the applied chemical.
Using the latest Biokil chemicals, re-entry time to the property can be as little as one hour.
All woodworm treatments are covered by our own company guarantee for 30 years. We can also provided a 30 year protected guarantee from our chemical supplier, Biokil-Crown.
If you suspect you have woodworm, or it is highlighted in a home report, contact us and we will arrange to carry out a survey. If woodworm is confirmed, we will supply you with a quotation to carry out the treatment works. Should any structural damage be found, we will allow for the replacement of the structural timbers in our quote.
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