Wood Distressing Insects

Have you ever seen weird, scattered series of tiny holes in the wooden structures of your house? This may be the work powderpost beetles. These pests mostly go unnoticed because they are just so small. Since they are so small it’s easy to miss them… for quite a while. The holes they make are so super small and they can burrow deep inside of a structure. You’re going to need to hire someone to get rid of them unless you know how to fumigate the place by yourself. In that case, good for you, why are you reading this article? You know more about this than I do.

Obviously, you want to avoid water damage and rotting wood but beyond the obvious did you know that rot increases your chance of getting a carpenter infestation? Rotting wood doesn’t particularly attract carpenter ants, they don’t eat it. However, they will take advantage of those weak points to get into and take up residence in your house. It’s not that they’re eating the good wood either. The activity caused by the colonies activity will cause the surrounding wood to rot and spread. Killing the ants you see around won’t get rid of the infestation but you can try poisoning the colony with ant baits. Once you get rid of them you need to quickly replace the rotting wood so a new colony can’t move in.

CARPENTER BEES! You know the huge ones that dive bombed you as a kid on the wooden swing sets? Yeah, those. You actually don’t have to worry about being stung by them (since they don’t have stingers), but it doesn’t make them any less terrifying and you don’t need that every time you walk out of the house! However, the kamikaze menaces are not the real problem. They’re just the drones (males), the real problem are the tiny black females. They burrow and nest inside the wood and damage the structure. Personally, I would get someone to take care of this problem for you because you know, bees. However, you can fix it yourself by locating their tunnels and generally dusting the areas with pesticides. Once you get all of them out of the house then you can access the damage. Hopefully, it won’t be too much more than filling in some of the holes they created.