How to Protect Property from Woodworm and Treat Woodworm

Solid wooden furniture is a great asset to your house and can be a great asset as it can last a lifetime. If it gets woodworm, though, it can be devastating, as it destroys an otherwise beautiful item and can spread to other parts of your house. 

Woodworm is actually a wood-boring weevil, no more than about 3mm long. Due to their tiny size, you generally don’t notice their presence until you spy the snitch holes in your furniture. Spotting holes doesn’t necessarily mean that you have live woodworm – if there’s dust it means they’re alive and still boring new holes, and probably breeding too.

The best way to prevent woodworms from getting into your furniture is DIY Pest Control or to keep it warm and dry, because the little weevils love cold damp conditions. Painting and varnishing furniture can help because they need bare wood to bore into, but if the paint cracks and chips away they will be able to find their way in.

A lot of woodworm attacks occur when furniture is stored. People move items into basements or attics out of the way, and the conditions make them vulnerable. Or if you’re moving and put them into storage you also need to be careful. Make sure the storage space is dry and not too cold. Treat the furniture with a varnish or stain to give it a top layer. This will vary depending on what type of wood it is, like oak or pine. If possible wrap it up thoroughly to keep it as dry as possible during storage.

You can measure the humidity of woodwork with a meter which you can either buy or rent from a hardware store. Over 18% is usually too high, but woodworms can live in wood with humidity as low as 12%. If you find you have high moisture levels, ventilate the room well and maybe get a dehumidifier, and avoid drying clothes that need the wood too.

If you do discover you have a woodworm infestation, first check how much it had spread. If it’s localized to a single table leg or a part of a window frame you can remove this and replace it, but you have to be really sure that it hasn’t spread. Look at every piece of wood around your home to check.

Also, you should be aware that not all woodworm are harmful. Consulting a Spider Pest Melbourne will help you work out what action you need to take.

You can get treatments, but these don’t kill eggs or larvae so you have to keep using them until you’re sure they’ve stopped breeding and they’re all treated. Some people recommend freezing – for small items you might be able to do this yourself, but if not there are professionals that can do it for you. For larger infestations, you’ll probably need to have the place fumigated by the Best Pest Control Melbourne, particularly if the Beatles have got into the wooden framework of the house as this can damage the structure.