Woodworm - treatment and danger?

bpmurray

The kitchen is basically a mismatched set of old cupboards & shelves - a bunch of the old style dressers. One of them has what appears to be woodworm - there are small holes and the wood is crumbling.

Now obviously I don't want to throw out anything (it really is old stuff), so what are my options. I presume I should try to confirm it really is woodworm rather than something else (I have no idea, but I suppose it could be some Wood Borer From Hell), and then what? HomeBase have cans of stuff for €22.95 - will that work?

Probably one of my biggest worries is whether it could spread, and if so what damage could it do?

tabby aspreme

Wood worm can only survive in damp wood, so if you can improve the ventilation it may help, the wood worm has a life cycle like any insect which begins in May / June with the adult laying eggs in a crack / crevice in a piece of wood, the eggs hatch into worms which spend the following year burrowing through the wood , the holes you see are the flight holes which the adult worm which is now a fly has used to leave the wood, this happens usually in May so if you keep an eye out you will see small piles of wood dust on infected wood at that time of year. You can treat the wood with a wood worm killer but if it's damp they will come back, what may be usefull is to use something like Ronseal wood hardener to strengthen the damaged wood.