Woodborer; Bore, eat and live inside your furniture for years

You may not notice these beetles except when they collect on the window sills or corners of the rooms in your house, but you will notice the tell tale flight holes and damage to wood around your home.

Identifying

The discovery of holes in a tree’s trunk or furniture or timber usually means it has been the victim of a boring insect attack. While it is alarming to discover an increasing number of timber with significant borer damage, it is not unexpected.

Common Borer — Also known as: Furniture Beetle, Woodworm Beetle, Bora Beetle.

House borer are pests of major economic importance in Delhi Area as well as other cities of NCR like Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon or Faridabad and other adjoining areas like Manesar and Kondli etc, the significance of which is not yet adequately recognized. As Indian houses get older the damage to timbers accumulates and attacked timbers become progressively weaker. It is not uncommon for weatherboards, floorboards, joists and other structural timbers to need replacing due to weakness caused by borer. The holes and labyrinths created by borer larvae also allow water to penetrate many timbers and increases damage and rot by fungi.

The larvae of wood borer enters the wood as a minute dot, almost invisible to the eyes and lives inside it eating the wood from within, after a long period of around 2–3 years spent tunneling inside the wood the adult looks forward to come out and it exit as an adult beetle via a round hole 1–2mm in diameter. Cutting out this trapdoor is their final wood destroying act. They emerge in order to breed, will not eat any more timber and will die within 3–4 weeks.

Life cycles

Eggs are laid on the surface of wood, these very tiny eggs when they hatch, the larvae slips into the wood by boring a very small almost invisible hole and continue its journey inside the wood.

Egg-larvae 14–28 days
Larvae-pupae 2–3 years
Pupae-adult 21–60 days
Adult-beetle 3–4 weeks

Exits October — February.
Exit Holes / Rounded holes 1–2mm.
How to Get Rid of Borer from Your House

Treatment of timbers to remove borer infestation is the same for whichever species is present.

1. Treatment of any bare wood can be done with solvent based insecticidal borer fluid. Solvent based insecticides can be used with turpentine oil or kerosene as it will penetrate deep into the timber and will kill tunnel making larvae as they eat the wood. The insecticide also prevents adults attaching to the treated wood and laying eggs on the surface. In normal circumstances this will protect the wood for many years.
2. These solvents when used for treatment to carry insecticide deep into the timbers will have a persistent smell and this solvent smell will stay for some days. Ventilation may help to dissipate the odor but you must be aware of this. This is sometimes irritating to kids as they create burning effects in their eyes.
   There is an alternative available in case the smell would be unacceptable these are water based options but these do not penetrate as deeply and will not give as good long term control.
3. Your Pest Control Expert will Inject flight holes in painted, varnished or polished timbers with aerosol injection fluid. The aerosol forces insecticide into the labyrinth created by the borer larva, killing any larva in the labyrinth or nearby. It also prevents adult beetles laying eggs in or around the flight hole.
4. In case you have good amount of wood around or you store timber etc then during each flight season set off borer bombs in roof voids and sub-floor areas. These knock down adult beetles that would lay eggs on the exposed timbers and definitely give some protection to the surface of the timbers.
5. Like almost all other pests, these borers also loves moisture, any timber that has some moisture in it is their first choice for attach. Ensure that your floor is dry and well ventilated. Check for plumbing leaks and unblock all air vents especially during moist weather. Check for leaks in the roof and if you have old terracotta or concrete tiles. These can act like sponges soaking up water and increasing the relative humidity of roof voids.

Getting rid of these borers from furniture is tricky

1. First because furniture is often polished, varnished, painted or otherwise sealed. Solvent based borer fluid sometimes damage polish and varnish or paint and will also prevent penetration of insecticide.

So our recommendation is to strip the polish, paint, varnish or other sealant prior to use of solvent borer fluid.

1. If you feel it is getting too long and if stripping is not an option then injection of all flight holes with borer aerosol injector, taking care to promptly wipe off any fluid that spills on the surface, will kill eggs and larvae prevent re-infestation via the flight holes.
2. Reassurance by checking and repeating the action on any new flight holes found during the flight season for at least three years may help in long run.

This combination of treatment will protect your home and your investments for many years.

For this and more such information please visit www.pestact.com more often and stay connected with our blogs. We offer world class pest control services. Your comments, suggestions, recommendations and stories or problems related to pests are most welcome. Do write to us at contact@pestact.com or call our All India Toll Free number (to get rid of pests from your surroundings and to fight them better) at 1800 200 7378.

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