Seven Ways to Get Rid of Woodworm

[Parazine]

I was given a pre-war deal folding table, years ago with some woodworm. I treated it, back in the eighties with Cuprinol 5 star for a couple of years, seemed to fix the problem. It had been stored in one of my sheds in the garden, which had to be demolished this spring because........it was badly infested with woodworm. 

Every bit of wood in the shed, bar a few items was affected and has had to be burnt. The old table at the back of the shed, almost certainly the source of the worm was almost eaten away.

N.B. This shed was in the garden, fully exposed to winter sub-zero temperatures, sometimes for days at a time, this didn't affect the woodworm....

Bob, we are talking about infestation by the common furniture beetle here, Anobium Punctatum. Insects in the Antipodes may be different, although this insect has a world-wide range these days.


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[Chris Garner]

Just to be straight; the life cycle of Anobium punctatum consists of four stages - egg, larva, pupa and adult. Only the larvae cause the damage . As mentioned they rarely attack heartwood, just sapwood.
Ancestors of the species can be traced back to the Permian period. ( 300 - 250 million years ago ) 
Originally found in Europe, it has now spread across the world.
There are many other wood boring species.

[Colin Morgan]

This is the 'offensive' stage... (magnified)


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[Peter Naulls]

Ok this is going slightly off topic but can anyone tell me what creature makes this?... 

When cutting timber for ash framing I occasionally find what look like tracks left by some kind of worm. The odd thing is that apart from the cul-de-sac the grain is reinstated and the wood apparently just as strong. They typically measure about 3 - 4mm across.

   

[Martin Prior]

Peter, out of interest, do you use European, or North American ash?  We use the latter and I've never seen tracks like that in it.

As a broader point, we find that woodworm is a major and pretty much universal problem in late A7s (Mk2 Rubies and their derivatives), much more than in early models where the timber has usually often failed through fracturing or wet rot, rather than infestation.  We have a theory that Austin must have used some sort of insecticidal treatment up until about 1936 - does anyone have any evidence to support that?

We treat all of our new woodwork with a good-quality spirit-based preservative such as Cuprinol or Ronseal.

[Peter Naulls]

Martin,

The wood in the photo is Eastern European ash but I'm currently using local wood, both have the same evidence of beasties.

Interesting about the difference in early versus late cars, I can't say I have noticed it but you could well be right. I wonder what insecticides were in use at the time. Like you I always use (or recommend) a treatment /preservative. 

When we moved to our current house I dare not put the Austin in the garage... the previous owner had put up pine shelves which were so badly infested that I removed every bit of wood with a broom, leaving just the screws sticking out of the wall! Much cleaning took place before treating the roof timbers. No recurrence in the replacement shelves or the Austins thankfully.

[Bob Culver]

Apparently our local borer is as Parazine and Chris above.  I dunno what temp the freezers were set down to, or maybe the bugs are less aclimatised here. Because of its fancy for particualr natives I presumed it was, but maybe, along with civilisation, it is one of the multitude of sins the wicked colonists are now accused of having introduced to this land still firmly in the stone age 250 years ago. A neighbouring property has a derelict asbestos sheeted garage with quite incredible borer. I think the owner is waiting fot it to blow down so the insurance will pay the formidable asbestos tidy up costs.