Wood saw dust under kitchen cabinets with some remnants of of insects

kaboo

Hi everyone. I am in the process of ripping out some old old kitchen cabinets in the kitchen of an old house we just bought. When I looked behind and under the cabinets I found heaps of what looks like wood saw dust. There were some weird shells too, could be beetle remains? I am not from UK so no idea what this could be?
Can the knowledgeable plz tell me what I am dealing with? And is it something to worry about? Or just clean the mess and carry on?

FreeBear

The beetle remains look like the common wood louse - They feed on damp, rotting wood. Check the stuff you have swept up is bone dry. It could just be debris left behind when the kitchen was fitted and so nothing to worry about.

kaboo

Ok... There isnt much wood there. Except the cabinet that i am throwing out! So should be ok?

Rosa_Damascena

kaboo said:

Ok... There isnt much wood there. Except the cabinet that i am throwing out! So should be ok?

Keep an eye on the cleared area, if this sawdust and carapaces reappear then you know there's some work to be done.

[Deleted User]

I would expect to see at least one skeleton of a mouse there!

downshifted

And a shrivelled dried frozen pea! There’s always peas...

Grizzlebeard

The first pic debris is mainly chipboard, almost certainly left when a previous kitchen was ripped out. It's showing signs of having been damp some time in the past but not unusual for a kitchen. Wood boring beetles don't generally attack  chipboard because it's bonded with a formaldehyde resin. The reddish pile looks like brick dust left from drilling fixing holes for the existing cabinet. Yes, the skeletons are wood lice. They will have fed on the chipboard crumbs and left the fine frasse, but would cause absolutely no damage to cabinets or kitchen. Just 'composted' the existing sawdust.

If there was a serious current problem you'd see lots of weak, rotten, and damaged wood in the existing furniture carcass that would crumble under your fingers and I'm sure you'd have uploaded a picture of it.

Rosa_Damascena

downshifted said:

And a shrivelled dried frozen pea! There’s always peas...

A cousin of the vomit rule (carrot).

kaboo

Thank you everyone. We ended up replacing the kitchen units. The cabinet boxes were very old, broken in places - probably while trying to fix/fit pipes behind them and the doors had extensive water damage especially around the sink area. So just replaced them with B&Q units. 

Cleaned throughly behind once we had ripped out the old units. Yes most of the dust was from cutting/drilling into brick. I did not see much mould, only a bit. The wall is all original 1930s pretty but very damaged tiles. I did not see any evidence of beetle damage to cabinets though.