Woodworm is the common name given to wood boring insects,
It is the grub or larvae of the adult beetles that cause all the damage by chomping there way through mainly the nice edible sections of timber, there are many different species of these beetles but the main one we deal with is common furniture beetle(anobium punctatum) that affects most domestic properties.
It is about 2-5 mm in length and is a dark brown colour.
The flight holes are 1.5-2mm in length and the frass(faeces) or bore dust are yellow pellets that are gritty when rubbed between finger and thumb.
Is does not just attack furniture as the name suggests but can infest structural timbers like floor joists and roofing timbers as well as floor boards as it likes to eat the sapwood of softwoods of European hardwoods.
So if you find fresh bore dust or small holes in exposed timber you probably need a qualified timber surveyor to inspect, so they can advise if treatment is needed or not as there are some wood-boring beetles that do not need treatment such as a bark borer beetle and as the name suggests it just likes to eat the bark of timber and does not affect the structural integrity of the timber.
