The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
The Care Of Wood Work In The Home
Anti-Beetle Treatment
THE pests which tunnel in woodwork are commonly called wood worms, but they are not; they are the grubs or larvae of small beetles—unfortunately, beetles which fly. It is the fact that these beetles can and do fly quite considerable distances during the summer months that constitutes them such a menace and makes a 'good neighbor' policy essential, for a neglected and infested house can threaten a whole neighborhood with damage.
To combat the ravages of wood beetles, it is necessary to know something of their appearance, habits and life cycles. There are many varieties of wood-borers, but there are only two which are likely to attack your furniture: the furniture beetle (Anobium punctatum) and the powder post beetle (lyctus). Both vary from reddish brown to black, and though they also vary in length they average only about one-eighth to one-sixth of an inch, so, except when flying around or settled on some light colored surface, you are unlikely to see them very often.
The life cycle of these beetles occupies four stages :(1) the egg, which is laid in a crack or crevice of the wood; (2) the larva or so-called 'wood-worm' hatches out through the underside of the eggshell, makes a pinpoint hole almost invisible to the naked eye and immediately bores into the wood, extracting for its food starch from the particles which it bites out during its tunnelling. It goes on tunnelling during the whole of its growth stage, but although at first it only bores in the direction of the grain, it later extends its tunnels in all directions, ending up close to the surface, where it excavates a small cavity, in which it changes into (3) a chrysalis. During this torpid period of a few weeks, the features of the adult beetle take shape and (4) the beetle breaks out of the chrysalis, bores its way through the thin remaining layer of wood, leaving a flight or exit hole of approximately one-sixteenth of an inch, flies away, mates and the cycle begins all over again.
The full life cycle of the lyctus, when operating indoors, usually takes about two years, but with both species time variations occur owing to different room temperatures and other factors. The rub, therefore, is that when you discover the exit or flight hole, usually made conspicuous by a patch or small heap of fine wood dust, considerable damage has taken place already, during the preceding one or two years.
