I have a severe case of woodworm in my house. It went untreated from years by the previous occupant and I had the house treated top to bottom before I moved in, but every floorbord in the house has holes of some kind. One year on and some of the floorboards with extensive damage have started collapsing when I stand on them. I can find no trace of the little blighters still being alive, I think it is because the wood is so infested that they can't stand up to my weight. Should I replace the entire floor or just replace the bits which are knackered? I suppose I could go on a diet, but that seems a little too difficult.
Replacing the knackered boards would seem to be the most economic course of action, unless it is nearly all of them which are collapsing, it is also possible that the woodworm are still chomping away, as the fluids used only poison them when they attempt to emerge as adult beatles, they remain in the timber as larvae for upto four years so once they pupate and head for the surface they die regards yics
if the problem seems to be worse than when you moved in, call the pest control people back to check, as the work should be guaranteed....and get them to look at it, if it was not done correctly, you could get them to replace the infested timber at their cost!!!!!!!!!
As usual Wolf has hit the nail on the head, as you should have been issued guarantee's for any disinfestaion treatments carried out it would be wise to get them back to check and see what they say regards yics
Yics ,if the treatment is done properly it should kill most of the larvae before they emerge. Mr Kitchen, make sure you have plenty of rations or a very large hamper as they don't come out 'til May!!
I didn't realize that he little buggers survived for four years. I think I might replace the lot and burn the old wood, very slowly, so I can hear them scream in pain and beg me for forgiveness.
True if the treatment was carried out properly it will kill most of the larvae however the penetration of the fluids is minimal and varies depending on the emulsifiers used in the fluids the modern micro emulsions are the best and have the shortest re-entry times for occupiers some now as low as 4 hours whereas the older fluids used to be 24 hrs and left a horrible odour for days and i wont even mention the spirit based stuff, and nowadays the little blighters emerge whenever they feel like it cos they like our nice warm houses. Treated one the other day and they where out trying to make a run for it. but at the end of the day it all depends on the operative that carried out the treatment, my firm took on a new guy, and as we issue insurance backed 30yr guarantee's I had check his work to sign off his jobsheet,got round to the first job to find him packing the gear up after only spraying the surfaces of the floors which he denied, so i asked him to lift the boards and found lovely bone dry floors underneath. little b';'rd
On a lighter note woodworker. If you lift all the boards to replace them. Sell them to the Americans. They pay a premium for genuine woodworm holes in timber. It raises the price of the furniture made from it.
The company I used gave me a 20 year guarantee and they said it was safe to go in the house almost immediately, so they must have used the decent water based stuff. Interesting idea about selling it to the Americans. Maybe I could sell it to Norm and market it as rustic reclaimed timber. They'll probably ban it, thinking it is a weapon of mass destruction. It's certainly destroyed most of my house
One thought if you have to change any floor is to use chipboard as the worms will not touch it. On a worse note I have longhorn beetle and boy can they eat wood!!! you can drive a car down the holes they make Yics what about spirit based treatments? I've used them and they certainly penetrate well, have to use breathing equipment though.
I aggree totally about the spirit based fluids, they certainly do penetrate and were more effective more quickly, however due to their spirit nature they were inherently dangerous to use, and the reentry times on most of them were 48hrs and some people with breathing problems could be adversly affected by them even after this time, nowadays the water based are very effective and the micro emulsions should have a comparable penetration and will definately do their job and break the life cycle of these little sods, albeit a little more slowly but still within one generation regards yics
Yiks, You seem to be a bit of an expert on this matter. It would be a bit daft of my to replace the flooring without treating it to keep the woodworm out. What do I need to use as a preventative measure? I have been to my local builders merchants today and can only find a 5 star treatment which does dry rot/wet rot and woodworm, however it also says to keep out of the house for 48 hours after treatment. Where can I get some of the water based stuff?
hi woodworker.. the micro emulsion that screwfix sell should be adequate and is pretty good value..... http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?ts=62483&id=12848 remember to wear gloves and if you spray it use a mask hope this helps Regards... yics
woodworker, u checked ur joists yet ,as these little blighters land on the bottom of the joists and then go up
Cheers Yiks, I'll get some with my next order. B & S, the compnay that did the treatment checked the joist and said they were fine. They said something about the joist were pre treated with some kind of gunk the Woodworm don't like. they must have gone for the earier target and straigt in to the floor boards, however I will check them again when I replace the floor.
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