View Full Version : My drawers are home to insects...
I don't know if the Eco Zone is the place for this...
I have a piece of furniture and something's eating it. It's actually the second piece that's being eaten - it was a replacement for the first. And a couple of years ago it happened to a wooden statue of mine too.
The furniture's from China, and it's made from reclaimed elm wood. If you put your ear to it you can hear munching... if you sit away from it and listen from a distance it sounds more like ticking. It's constant, day and night.
Now, we're obviously going to have to burn it... but I'd just like to know what the insect might be. :blink: I dug one out when I was feeling brave (and mr ribbit screamed when he saw it pop its little head out! :lol: ). It was a white grub-looking-thing... about half an inch long.
Any ideas? Somebody suggested Death Watch Beetle.
ribbit :curly:
freakyfun
22-09-04, 05:43 PM
Its going to be one of the common 5:
Common Furniture Beetle (Anobium punctatum)
House Longhorn Beetle (Hylotrupes bajulus)
Wood Boring Weevils (pentarthrum hutonni) and (Euophyrum confine)
Powder Post Beetle (Lyctus spp.)
Death Watch Beetle (Zestobium rufovillosum)
As to how to identify it .. no idea :(
FF
Oooh it sounds horrible Ribbit! ;) Really nasty!
Could you donate the furniture to your lovely neighbours??? :P
Originally posted by freakyfun+22nd September 2004 - 4:43 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(freakyfun @ 22nd September 2004 - 4:43 PM)</div>Its going to be one of the common 5
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They all sound nasty. I'm going google all of them to see if there are pictures of the little white grubs. I wish there was a way of getting rid of them without destroying the furniture. :sad:
<!--QuoteBegin-eeyore2ok@22nd September 2004 - 4:46 PM
Could you donate the furniture to your lovely neighbours???** :P
:lol: Now there's a thought! :hihi:
Mind you, knowing my luck the little devils will work their way out of the furniture and upwards to the floorboards under my feet! :o :lol:
They never sleep... just much all day and all night. I wonder how they know when to come out. :blink:
ribbit :curly:
Bonkers Mad!!!
22-09-04, 06:16 PM
the furniture can probably be treated if its not to badly damaged ;)
I once bought an old set of drawers, complete with woodworm.. got it half price if i remember correctly to compensate me for the cost of woodworm treatment. Best fiver i ever paid....
Seriously though... you'll only ever see woodworm in May.. when they fly out... that's the theory anyway... but if it is a nasty beetle like this I'm pretty sure that a good old dose of the woodworm stuff killed anything similar... i think deathwatch beetle are quite big aren't they? I bought mine in a DIY store - the killer stuff that is not the drawers...
Btw... it worked so well I now house my knickers in the chest of drawers... and I don't have wierd creepy crawlies in there!!! :lol: Honest!!
Btw... it worked so well I now house my knickers in the chest of drawers... and I don't have wierd creepy crawlies in there!!!** :lol: Honest!!
:hihi: :lol: There's nothing worse than having something strange loose in your drawers! :blush: :lol:
How do you know where to put the woodworm killer stuff?
These grubs are inside the wood and there are no entry holes because the wood has then been lacquered in China. I can tell more or less which bit they're in, but I wouldn't be able to pin point their position.
Just been reading about these bugs... it's a shame I have to kill them... they're fascinating. :blink:
I was just reading one web page about how a dry atmosphere prevents these little critters from flourishing... so that central heating I love so much should help. And good ventilation is another thing that helps... so those drafty sash windows of ours do have their uses. :thumbs:
ribbit :curly: :blush:
Lady Penelope
22-09-04, 07:33 PM
:lol: Sorry Ribbit...I have been on the floor laughing
(and mr ribbit screamed when he saw it pop its little head out!
it reminded me of my large brother in law who was telling me when he was burgled whilst asleep upstairs, I asked him what he did he do and he replied, well I baricaded myself in my room or course :bigeyes:
Aw....hope you get it sorted soon
LPxxx :blush:
We've done much research and have discovered that we definitely have "powder post beetle". Whoopee... not! :cry: Horrible little things. And we've got them in another piece of furniture too... same supplier. This piece is just too valuable to destroy... so we have to get some woodworm killer stuff and try to kill the b*ggers!
Does anyone know anything about these little pests? I've been reading everything I can on the Internet, but it's mostly stuff by people trying to sell the fluid or sprays... what I'm trying to find out is whether they tend to survive once they exit the furniture and enter the centrally heated home of a ribbit? Our furniture is mainly lacquered or varnished... quite a lot of it is old and I don't think they like old wood. :unsure:
Maybe we should cut out the little b*ggers and post them through Ron 'n' Gassy's cat flap :devil:
ribbit :curly:
Lady Penelope
10-10-04, 12:05 AM
:o Goodness me!!
Well you know HN is right....I have friends who import oriental furniture too. They thought me barking mad at a recent dinner party when I was 'Listening' to their new piece of imported wonder :bigeyes: Don't know if they'll invite me again :wow:
On the other hand, yes you could go the whole hog and fumigate the place....just don't tell Gassy n Ron :devil:
Troubles might be over when you return :lol:
LPxxx
Is it worth speaking to your local env health dept? It might be a waste of time, but worth checking them out for info anyway (put it this way, I would call them). :) .
Chartered surveyors learn about these nasty bugs too, so could have info - although I don't know if they'll be interested in furniture :( .
Have you had a look for pest control sites like rentokil? When I had my 'mouse in loft' problem, I found quite a few sites that had descriptions of all sorts of pests and treatments :) . (alas I do not recall any of them now :( )
Well, we told the supplier about his inhabited furniture... he was a wee bit thrown (new to the furniture business you see)... he contacted his Chinese supplier, who is none too pleased to say the least because he has a whole warehouse full of these things :blink: .
We've got a refund for the recent piece that's infected... but we decided to keep the one we bought last year because it's just too beautiful to give back :wub: ... and we thought we'd take on the worms ourselves to start with. :pow: If it doesn't work we'll get in a specialist.
We looked up the Rentokil site and they had lots of useful stuff :thumbs:
We bought a spray that you poke into the flight hole and squirt into the tunnel - luckily we have flight holes to squirt into, the other piece doesn't have them so there's no way of knowing where the little critter is (hence it's return to the supplier :cry: ). We squirted it in and it's now drying. Then we have to fill the hole and varnish over the filled area. Luckily the holes are on the underneath of a door so the repair won't be visible.
We contacted the environmental health people and they didn't want to know. :blink:
I know one thing... I'm glad it wasn't House Longhorn Beetle... the larva grow to be 3cm long! :sicky:
Now we just keep our fingers crossed! :unsure:
ribbit :curly:
Domestic Goddess
10-10-04, 06:35 PM
anyone else feel itchy when reading this thread?!!!
Ribbit
We import furniture and wood products from the far east and all come treated and whenwe sellproducts we always say that the wood is treated, but if any little creatures show their ugly heads we will refund.
Your retailer/supplier has a duty of care to you as a customer and if they refuse to take responsibilty for the worm infested furniture they sold you then you should contact trading standards.
jo
This is no good for furniture because of the size! I used to live in West Africa and wooden artefacts often had bugs in them. The standard remedy was the freezer. Put the piece in a poly bag to protect the freezer contents. Freeze it for a month to kill the adults and then another month to kill the eggs. We used to put the piece out for the local ants to 'clean up' in between freezes. Not very hygenic but it worked a treat!