Woodworm

francohoops

Hi
We have just found out we have woodworm in our hall and staircase. Issue is my wife is 37 weeks pregnant and we have a 2 year old, so don't want to start spraying dangerous chemicals around.

Also, floorboards are laid on a concrete floor, so apparently this reduces the options that we have to treat the woodworm.

What is going to be the safest most effective way of fixing this problem?
Thanks
F

londonlydia

How did you find out? If you just noticed holes they may not be alive still (they may have been there for years). There are also different types of woodworm (some more serious), which require different treatment I believe.

My personal response is that given your circumstances, I would not put any form of chemical treatment down. After all, even if it is alive, it could have been there ages without doing you any harm.

If it is alive, you would expect to see little bits of dust appearing at the end of the holes (vacuum the area and check every few weeks to see if it's reforming, could just be dust!).

Woodworm needs damp wood. It is possible you have it if there was no DPC put in with your concrete floor, so your concrete is damp thus making your timber damp. But that's just a possibility...does it look/ feel damp?

Safer, chemical freee ways of ridding woodworm is to make sure you have dry wood, so make sure the areas are well heated.

francohoops

Carpet fitters commented on how worn some of the boards around the edges if the floor were. There is no dpc under floorboards.

A few of the boards are very damp and they have worn away.
I plan to renew floorboards, lay a dpc and new skirting with new wood and lay new carpet. This may not fully eradicate problem, but the alternative is spraying chemicals which may have sims nasty side effects.

I will monitor situation over the next 6-12 months and if it reoccurs then I may have no option but to treat with chemicals.

keystone

If you can see holes the little blighters have gone. If the holes have very fine dust under them its recent. If not they are old ones.

Cheers

Norman_Castle

I used this http://www.rentokil.co.uk/residential-customers/diy-pest-control-products/woodworm-products/woodworm-treatment-fluid/index.html#info on an imported, chest style, coffee table last year. It worked well. The page has a helpline number for advice.