Woodworm

Toyotafanboi

Hi,

Currently doing a full refurbishment of a 60's bungalow. We are trying to do as much as possible ourselves.

Anyway, the dreaded woodworm.

After removing the insulation from the attic we have clear symptoms of woodworm, lots of small holes in the timbers. Mainly in the ceiling joists but there is some evidence to a lesser extent in the rafters. There is no symptoms in the suspended timber floors or doors/ skirtings in the house itself.

The question I suppose is how to proceed? I've been reading that they can't survive in timber with a moisture content of less than 20%, so I'm wondering has this infestation long since passed and I'm just seeing historical damage as opposed to a live infestation. The house has no evidence of damp etc. The house being almost 60 years old, if the roof has stayed up since then I'd have a little more faith in it. None of the timbers seem soft or spongey, they all still seem solid when hit with a hammer etc.

I have treated the ceiling joists aswell as the timber floors with protim and a pump sprayer but even with a boiler suit and face mask designed for fumes I'd rather not do the rafters if at all avoidable. Can anyone recommend any diy fumigation kits etc? Obviously I'd like to not have to replace the roof but the house is currently completely gutted so ideal for fumigation etc at present.

my3cents

You can normally spot an active infestation by the little piles of sawdust you find below the holes.

Protim will do the job and prevent any reinfestation but I know its killer stuff to apply in a confined space.

lgk

Get a lance attachement for the sprayer (or buy a cheap lance sprayer from a garden centre), that will allow you reach the rafters from enough distance that you're not over-spraying yourself. I did that 15 years ago and all clear since.

Toyotafanboi

Well, just an update and looking for some advice.

I sprayed the entire attic with protim, hateful job and never again. Dark, confined, fumes etc, used around 100 litres altogether, all timber work was treated.

At the time we replaced any bad joists (joists mere much more infested than the rafters). Most of the rafters looked good, still felt good and strong. We added some new timber as some of the old collars were fairly warped. Anyway, I done that work across October - December 2018.

I have since ran a second layer of joists in the attic using pressure treated 4x2 to allow for 300mm of insulation and then decked over these with 3/4 inch ply and added a few rows of LED lights so the attic is now easy to access for storage etc.

Went up there last week and found an awful lot of new flight holes in the treated timber that definitely were not ther beforehand :mad: you can see the fresh sawdust sticking out against the green protim colour. I know the woodworm lifecycle is 3 years according to google, is it a case that now they have eaten through the protim laden timber that they will die or do i still have a situation on my hands?

I've since read about treating the timber with borax which I'm considering doing as it's not a human bio hazard like protim. Has anyone ever experienced similar?

listermint

Why not spot treat the areas with borax and just monitor it for a few months. I wouldn't go excessive it could be merely localised.

Calahonda52

They are the exit holes.

tabby aspreme

Have you checked the moisture content of the timber, wood worm need damp timber to survive

jack of all

Spraying timber that's already infected may be of limited benefit. I have treated small infestations by injecting flight holes (not all of them)- I used a "needle" and syringe that's normally used for refilling ink cartridges. Not an easy job on large scale jobs....

Toyotafanboi

listermint wrote: »

Why not spot treat the areas with borax and just monitor it for a few months. I wouldn't go excessive it could be merely localised.

Ah there is evidence in a few areas, if there's any risk, I'd be much happier to do the whole roof again. Well, I'd rather not, but it will :pac:

Calahonda52 wrote: »

They are the exit holes.

Correct but if they are exiting, then the protim mustn't have killed them when they were in the timber and now they are off contaminating more timber?

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Have you checked the moisture content of the timber, wood worm need damp timber to survive

I would like to check that. I've heard it needs to be less than 20%? I do think that could be a contributing factor as the house (60's built) never had a heating system, then lay idle from 2016 until we moved in a month ago so the timber could be harbouring moisture?

jack of all

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I would like to check that. I've heard it needs to be less than 20%? I do think that could be a contributing factor as the house (60's built) never had a heating system, then lay idle from 2016 until we moved in a month ago so the timber could be harbouring moisture?

I'm not sure about the whole moisture content argument- there's no question that damp or wet timber will be especially subject to rot or insect infestation but plenty of examples of (presumably) dry furniture and structural timber that also succumbed to woodworm also.

Toyotafanboi

Made a but of headway on this and have went with Wykamol Microtech this time.

https://wykamol.com/products/microtech-insecticide-concentrate-wood-treatment

It's water based not solvent based like protim, so it's a little easier to be spraying in a concentrated environment and doesn't have a heavy odour like protim, I'm aware it's still harsh stuff, but it is easier worked with. The only concern is as it's water based I hope it doesn't contribute to the timber warping, but I may just hope for the best there.

I've have bought enough concentrate to make 50 litres, made a start on it on Monday night, tipping away at it. I'd say it'll take while to get through the whole thing again, but sure.