Wood worm in a stool, should I be worried about my home?

delmonta

mexican_dave said:

JohnB47 said:

It's possible that the area where it was stored at your mums was relatively damp and the infestation started there. In my recent experience woodworm seems to prefer wood found in slightly damp areas - usually in unventilated ground floor or basement areas. They avoid really dry wood - upstairs structures in my experience.

Yes, the adult woodworm is a beetle and prefers to lay it's eggs in damp wood (avoiding dry wood). The eggs hatch into larvae (grubs) that chew the softer parts of the wood grain, tunnelling around as they feed, making powdery poo. Eventually the larvae, pupate into adult beetles and emerge from holes to fly off and lay eggs somewhere. So the holes actually show where the adult beetles have flown from, and the powdery poo will drop-out when the timber is tapped. Maybe your woodworm has gone? As that's only maybe, then I would treat with a proprietary woodworm treatment. Obviously apply to the holes so that the treatment can get deep into the wood and on any "end grain" near to the holes. "End grain" is the direction that wood soaks up fluid - water when it was a tree. Provided the wood is not painted or heavily stained you will see "end grain" which will appear speckled and show growth rings, as it is a section through a trunk or branch, of what was a tree. See also
https://images.app.goo.gl/zg7zAYacBX8iyaTPA

Thank you for the advice, I'll do this!

Postik

Personally I would remove the stool from the house for now if you can keep it elsewhere.  I think you can treat it but I also heard about wrapping it in a big plastic bag and tying the top tightly.  When the beetle emerges it will have nowhere to go and will die.

Like you I would also be worried about the floors and piano but they like soft, damp wood.  It's very difficult for them to eat into hard, dry, lacquered wood and they wouldn't really want to.  You'll have to wait and see what happens, but chances are you will be fine.  Bear in mind later in the year one of the adult beetles could potentially fly into any of our houses through an open window, but that doesn't mean every item that we own that's made of wood is at risk.