Seeing as timber accounts for up to 70 per cent of the fabric of your home, woodworm can be a common and difficult problem to deal with. If wood boring beetles cause significant damage, it can result in timbers losing their structural integrity, which will require treatment to rectify.
But to better understand why this issue is a problem, let’s take a closer look at the woodworm lifecycle.
- Woodworm starts breeding
The lifecycle begins when the female woodworm lays her eggs directly into the timber. This is in cracks, crevices or existing flight holes of the wood so that eggs are protected and not left on the surface.
- Woodworm larvae hatch
After a few weeks or so, the eggs will hatch downwards into the timber, which produces larvae. This is the worm stage of the infestation.
- Woodworm larvae begin to eat
The worm, or larval stage, can carry on for anywhere between two and five years. During this time, the larvae will eat its way up and down the timber, which is what causes structural damage. This is the stage in the lifecycle when frass, or dust is produced and becomes apparent, which is often used to identify the presence of woodworm.
- Larvae turn into woodworm beetles
Before the woodworm lifecycle comes to a close, larvae form a pupal chamber, where it enlarges the tunnelling towards the timber’s surface. It then pupates from the larval stage into an adult woodworm beetle, which in turn eats through the last thin veneer of timber, producing round exit holes.
Although woodworm beetles cause very little damage after this, they will mate as much as possible in their short lifespans (10-14 days for a female, 3-4 days for a male) and the cycle can start again.
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