Wood worm in joists

[Lazurus]

Just moved into our new place and I cleaned out the single garage that the old boy before us had used as a small workshop. I noticed some active woodworn in the rafters (flat pent roof) so I gave it a good dose of Cuprinol wood worm killer 5 days ago. I noticed today there is still some active critters in the wood. Do I need to reapply or will the original spray act on and kill thos still munching?

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Just moved into our new place and I cleaned out the single garage that the old boy before us had used as a small workshop. I noticed some active woodworn in the rafters (flat pent roof) so I gave it a good dose of Cuprinol wood worm killer 5 days ago. I noticed today there is still some active critters in the wood. Do I need to reapply or will the original spray act on and kill thos still munching?

What does the label say

Personally I'd dose it until there all gone

Does the tin stabilise the timber too?

 

[Lazurus]

What does the label say

Personally I'd dose it until there all gone

Does the tin stabilise the timber too?

Binned the tin, but I do have some of a different brand if needed, nothing about stabilisation so will do that seperate when the worm is gone

 

[Shox Dr]

Is it water based? I find it next to useless

 

[julianf]

It only kills them as they go in or out.

Ie when they eat the poisoned layer. They can live happily inside until that point.

...which is the same with all of the potions.

I don't know what their lifecycle is, but you can see activity after application, but I understand that they die eventually.

 

[brightspark]

the modern stuff is waterbased with wax the old stuff was the best where you couldn't go in the rooms for 3 days .the one dose will snuff them out

 

[Seadog]

DDT smoke tablets

 

[brightspark]

DDT smoke tablets

derris dust .god a blast from the past it was banned years ago

 

[Lazurus]

derris dust .god a blast from the past it was banned years ago

Shame!

 

[Barking Mat]

I treated my timber 3 times with xylophene or somesuch.

 

[Greeves246]

Was going to say Vapona blocks but they appear not to be available now. Don't know if they are banned worldwide but they were the best thing to kill insects.

 

[mike os]

Make sure you soak the timbers

You can inject individual holes too

 

[Gareth J]

I dosed our single garage the other month. Quite a few activish holes. Used s concoction of bitumen and woodstain (with some anti boring insecticide). But oil based woodworm killer would go in too.

Stained them very black, the advantage being that new activity showed up obviously and I reapplied accordingly. Soon stopped.

Need to do the house rafters sometime but that's a bit more daunting

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Last time I used the boron based stuff....it's a tablet that you mix with water and then spray or brush on. They also sell plugs that you can drill and insert into the wood.

Seemed to work fine and did the job....don't know if it's still available as was probably 12 years ago.

 

[Lazurus]

Got sent the below, seems quite thorough.


The typical common furniture beetle treatment fluids are permethrin therefore they are contact pesticides affecting the nervous system and kills them. The stuff passes through the insect's cuticle or shell. It kills only those insects it comes into contact with. It does not kill through, for example, the mature grub chewing a hole to emerge because they're not feeding to do so, but it will kill if the emerging insect's shell scrapes along treated wood. Nor does it kill mature insects laying eggs, although it does rather discourage them from doing so, and it will kill the larvae as they emerge from the egg, if they come into contact with the permethrin.

Flooding treatments with permethrin can't penetrate deeply into the wood, no more than maybe a couple of millimetres, but possibly (very rarely I'd say) up to three to six millimetres if the material is especially absorbent. Immature grubs that come into contact with that treated wood near the surface will be affected, but not those deeper in where the poison cannot reach them. Treatment relies entirely upon repeated dosing that rub against the skin (if that's the correct term) as the grubs pass by or, as already mentioned, as they emerge as adults; the immature grubs can spend anywhere between two to five years maturing, meaning treatment has to be repeated over a number of years, especially during the spring and early summer period when the grubs emerge as adults.

 

[Gareth J]

Interesting!

I'd also heard that certain things discourage activity, anything likely to be unpleasant to eat for the larvae, diesel and waste engine oil for example.

And that increasing human activity helps too, certainly seems to make sense when you think about where you find them, a chair in an old abandoned building for example can be turned to powder where one regularly used at home would not. Similarly lofts and floor voids susceptible but bannisters (for example) less so. So hopefully if you use the space a but more, it'll help discourage activity too.

 

[Domdom]

Years ago it used to be paraffin. Local piano shop used to use it as well on their secondhand pianos.

 

[brightspark]

Years ago it used to be paraffin. Local piano shop used to use it as well on their secondhand pianos.

it will certainly do the job and soak well in with a couple of coats . better than the modern rubbish

 

[awemawson]

I was going to suggest paraffin as it is certainly efficacious, but I'm not sure how the insurance claim would go when it turns out that you doused the place BEFORE the fire

 

[Morrisman]

Make sure you soak the timbers

You can inject individual holes too

I used to use Solignum, when we lived in the Far East. Oil based, clear or brown, it really did the trick. My wood gnome, Pogi, got infected, so I stood him on his head, drilled a dozen holes in the base, filled them with Solignum and left him to soak for a few days. No more bugs eating him.