can woodworm cause serious problems?

PollySouthend

Hi, just had all my floorboards sanded and varnished. Three small woodwortm maggots have crawled to the top.

Not sure what to do. Some say get it treated. Others say don't the chemicals are toxic and just heat the house properly and they will disappear and they rarely cause any significant damage.

Anyone had experience of this?

SG27

Is/was there any damp in the effected area?

stebiz

If this is NEW woodworm, which ifrom what you appear to say it is, then yes unless it is treated they can take over the whole house. I remember looking at a house once which had a serious problem and fot went through the ceiling because the joist was well and truly infested.

Chemical treatment really is your best option.

PollySouthend

SG27 wrote: »

Is/was there any damp in the effected area?

Yes, was a damp problem in the house that should now have been fixed.

Floorboards were under carpet and now exposed. Was dust holes under the carpet that looked like from worm, but carpets were very very old

PollySouthend

stebiz wrote: »

If this is NEW woodworm, which ifrom what you appear to say it is, then yes unless it is treated they can take over the whole house. I remember looking at a house once which had a serious problem and fot went through the ceiling because the joist was well and truly infested.

Chemical treatment really is your best option.

Really not keen on chemical unless its absolutely essential.

SG27

Well from my experience and extensive reading on the subject (after buying a house with deathwatch beetles!) the woodworm are attracted to damp wood. Particularly sap wood, which is the softer outer rings of the tree. As opposed to heartwood which normally makes up the structural timbers of old houses. If the wood is affected by damp and rot the woodworm will flourish and spread, even to heartwood. If the wood is dried out it becomes much less of a hospitable environment for them and the adults will seek out a more suitable (damp) place to lay their eggs.

Once the wood is dried fully the colony should gradually die out. Although adults may still emerge for several years as the surviving worms emerge. It's also worth noting that they don't like warm centrally heated houses either.

My house is 300 years old and full of woodworm holes. Most of these will have been created when the timber was first erected and the wood was 'green' ie freshly cut, very tasty for woodworm. As the wood seasoned and dried the adults went elsewhere. If the only solution was chemical treatment my house would have been eaten to nothing hundreds of years ago!

In conclusion, and in my opinion fix the damp and you fix the woodworm problem.

PollySouthend

Thanks , thats exactly the same conclusion I came to with my research. Don't want to even google what deathsWatch are..

Everyone I tell this problem to seams to say I need to get it treated or my house will fall down. Don't want to burry my head in the sand, but I think they are just people that are easily fooled and know very little on the subject.

I havent central heating, but do have a wood burner.

Im hoping to just see a few dust holes each year and hope they gradually die out. Spraying insecticides in my house is not an option.

lostinrates

Well, I'd treat. We aRE treating as we go through.

We live in a house that has suffered Wood worm damage in the past. The cost implications of this could be significant. Worm holes in the surface? Beautiful. Impacting on the structure of your property? Less so.

We've lost original floors in this listed property because of people's failure to treat in the past here:( its like card board, your feet go through in places.) beams that have been eaten through where buried in the wall, but fine or just,'decoratively nibbled' where on display.

Having seen first hand the damage wood worm can do I could not be as relaxed as you are being.

PollySouthend

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, I'd treat. We aRE treating as we go through.

We live in a house that has suffered Wood worm damage in the past. The cost implications of this could be significant. Worm holes in the surface? Beautiful. Impacting on the structure of your property? Less so.

We've lost original floors in this listed property because of people's failure to treat in the past here:( its like card board, your feet go through in places.) beams that have been eaten through where buried in the wall, but fine or just,'decoratively nibbled' where on display.

Having seen first hand the damage wood worm can do I could not be as relaxed as you are being.

Thanks appreciate the advice.

My house touch wood ha is structually sound as only the floorboards have been nibbled. Only one floorboard is a bit dodgy, and the damage there looks decades ago so must have just been a particularly yummy bit of wood.

Trust me I'm not relaxed, but I'd rather cosmetic damage to the house than damage to my health a s nervous system with pesticides.

How old is your place? Did it show up on the survey?

lessonlearned

I don't know if I'm talking utter rubbish here but I wondered if a more holistic natural method can be used rather than toxic chemicals.

Obviously you would need to remove any rotten timbers and eradicate any damp first. However once that is all done are their kinder methods (kinder to humans that is:rotfl:)

I have used aromatherapy oils to make my own insect repellants with great effect, i.e. mozzies, ants etc and no longer resort to chemicals.

Crawling insects such as ants, and beetles hate the herb thyme, so would thyme oil work, unless it's not strong enough???? You could "paint" the wood with a thyme oil and carrier oil base and/or make up a water and thyme oil spray.

I doubt that it would kill off a live infestation but it should deter any new adult beetles and therefore stop them laying new eggs.

You can also use Borax as a preventative measure - again not sure if it would kill off the little blighters but apparently it works as a deterrent. There are instructions on the web and you can buy it from Amazon etc.

You might find that drying everything out, replacing rotten timbers and then taking a preventative measure might be enough.

Apparently a good test to check if the infestation is live or historic is to tape some paper to the suspect woodwork. Leave for a month or so - if little holes appear then the worms are still active. If not then the infestation is likely to be historic.

lostinrates

PollySouthend wrote: »

Thanks appreciate the advice.

My house touch wood ha is structually sound as only the floorboards have been nibbled. Only one floorboard is a bit dodgy, and the damage there looks decades ago so must have just been a particularly yummy bit of wood.

Trust me I'm not relaxed, but I'd rather cosmetic damage to the house than damage to my health a s nervous system with pesticides.

How old is your place? Did it show up on the survey?

Our house is listed as 'Georgian' but in places is younger, and places much older. The two most significant areas of damage are in the oldest part and a Victorian floor. The joists in a part we haven't determined age of are also damaged.

No, didn't and couldn't have shown on survey.

Fwiw, I have chronic ill health, neurological ill health if it matters. I am under the care of other consultants too. Living with the pesticides has made no discernible difference to my health. In fact, I have made some same improvements and some dips, since treatment. We are always pretty careful though.