Woodworm Detection
There are many types of wood boring insects which may potentially cause damage to the structural timbers of any building provided that the right conditions and wood type are available.
It is often stated that any building incorporating wood as the main structure or flooring that is over 50 years in age is highly likely to be affected by woodworm infestation. Again there are many factors to be considered before such a bold statement can be deemed as factual.
The most common attacker here in the U.K. is the “Common Furniture Beetle” (hence the name!). For those people who like to be technical, they can refer to it as Anobium Punctatum. They prefer to dine on the sapwood of both soft and hardwoods. They have been known to indulge on the inner heartwood, but only if the area has been broken down by other predators including fungal decay.
It is known that the eggs are laid in clusters in the little cracks, crevasses and even old flight holes of the timbers they inhabit. It is not known just how many eggs a female can lay at any one time, or if numerous adults will lay in one particular place. In the right conditions, these eggs can hatch within 2 – 3 weeks and then the whole process starts again.
