Woodworm concern

[behanmarie]

Hi
I hope it's ok to post here. I live in Ireland

I have inherited a house built in 1917, very big house where my dad lived alone for years. Sadly he passed away recently. It is now unoccupied. We are concerned about woodworm in the house. During late summer and last week when checking the house I noticed bugs on the window sills. I cleaned them off and again the last time I had been down they reappeared..They are black in colour and they make the area around the window sill seem quite dirty looking.

we are hoping to keep the house, do up for rental market but would it be wise to get this assessed? The house can be cold. Dad found it hard to heat as there are stone walls and it could be cold even when central heating was on.

My worry is that more especially woodworm could be lurking for yesrs and caused the boards to weaken.

My real question is ( sorry for long story) is that can woodworm cause big damage structurally to a house. Those little critters could be ongoing for decades! If so it could be costly to fix.

Any feedback welcome!

Thank you
Marie

 

[Cubist]

Hello Marie and welcome,

Sorry to hear of your loss and that you're worried about some kind of woodworm challenge with your Dads old place. The normal indicators of a woodworm attack are usually the appearance of very small holes, sub 2mm, in the wood and/or the appearance of 'frass' the excreta the woodworm larvae. The excreta is very small and can appear rather like a heavy, gritty dust which can be black or sandy brown in colour. The holes left in the wood are the exit points of adult beetles that have moved on to find a mate and procreate - they may be nearby but could just as easily be some considerable distance away. Whilst the adult form of the beetle often dies after laying its eggs to find their corpses in significant numbers would be surprising. They like to lay their eggs in damp wood and the larvae can live in the timber for 5 years and more.

The best way to combat them is get and keep all the woodwork around the house as dry as possible. If you find a section of timber with lots of tiny holes in it the treat that section of wood and any others nearby with a permethrin based worm killer, fill the holes with wax and keep an eye on the wood to watch for future holes appearing.

Sadly these old places need to be regularly policed for these perishers and particularly of the house has been left unused for a long period.

All the best, Cubist

 

[behanmarie]

Hi Cubist

Thank you so much for your response. I really appreciate it

Marie