How to kill woodworm naturally

I bought some wooden things from Europe.
The wood has holes and after a week or so,  the holes make fresh sawdust.

I stuck it in the freezer while I figure out what to do.

We don't have woodworm here so I don't know where to find treatment.   What do I do to save this wood?

Depending on finish, size, and other parts, you could try freezing or baking it. Baking would be more of a quick process, while freezing could take up to 3 months.

r ranson wrote:I bought some wooden things from Europe.
The wood has holes and after a week or so,  the holes make fresh sawdust.

I stuck it in the freezer while I figure out what to do.

We don't have woodworm here so I don't know where to find treatment.   What do I do to save this wood?

Hi,

This is what i found on the internet:

"Before attempting any other treatments, try to dry out the affected wood; moisture is required to sustain the life of woodworm larvae, so drying the wood may solve the problem on its own. Place small pieces of furniture on a radiator or in the oven, and place larger items in a closet or small room with a space heater."

Hope this helps!

Lana

When I was in school I had a project to find different bugs and then mount them.

I used a cotton ball soaked in alcohol to kill the bugs.

I ask Mr. Google, who told me pure isopropanol alcohol would kill woodworms.  I would put the items in some sort of bag with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol.  To be certain the woodworm all get killed I would leave the items in the bag for several days.

One of my concerns is damaging the wood.  If I put it in the oven, wouldn't it crack or warp?

Anne Miller wrote:When I was in school I had a project to find different bugs and then mount them.

I used a cotton ball soaked in alcohol to kill the bugs.

I ask Mr. Google, who told me pure isopropanol alcohol would kill woodworms.  I would put the items in some sort of bag with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol.  To be certain the woodworm all get killed I would leave the items in the bag for several days.

I like the idea of putting something in the bag with the wood.  I can use the largest ziplock bags for most of the pieces (the ones I know for sure have worms).  I think it holds something like 2 gallons volume.  I wonder how many cotton balls it would take to kill those monsters?  

Back then I was using one cotton ball for a quart jar.  4 quarts to a gallon.  So eight cotton balls?


Here is where the info on alcohol came from:

https://plantsnepal.com/woodworms-detection-treatment-prevention/

And this one has some other solutions:

https://www.wikihow.com/Treat-Woodworm

Putting my entomologist hat on! Woodworms are the larvae of an number of species of wood boring beetle. There are tons of species of boring beetles across every continent but Antarctica which attack wood (alive and dead).

The good thing about wood boring beetles is that they have a very long life cycle compared to most other pest insects. From egg to adulthood takes a minimum of 9 months (and for some species, multiple years), so it's easy to get rid of them once you have effective treatment.

Given that you don't know what species it is, it's hard to say exactly how long you'd need to freeze or heat it (and at what temperature) to kill any living beetles. Many boreal and temperate continental species of wood boring beetle are able to survive at temperatures much colder than your freezer (-20C down to -40C). For some species, a quick dip in the freezer will kill larvae, but not eggs, so the eggs require a second (or third or forth) round of treatment at a later time to catch newly-hatched larvae.

The fumigation technique with isopropyl alcohol mentioned above could work, but will cause a very significant amount of condensation, which can damage the wood. Also, beetles are notoriously resistant to fumigation--as an entomologist I've collected a number of beetles and even in direct contact with ethanol-laced cotton balls, some were still alive after a week or more. Given that the tunnels provide an extra layer of protection, I am not sure that this method will kill all your beetles (and you do want to make sure to kill all of them!)

Living in a country where houses are often not dry enough to prevent wood-boring beetles indoors, I also have some personal experience getting rid of them! If you have a dry home, the problem usually goes away on its own after 1-2 years, but in this time you may see a significant amount of damage, particularly to small or delicate wooden articles.

My recommendation is to use boron, which is the industry standard treatment for getting rid of wood-boring beetles. Boron will not only kill adult and larval beetles directly, it will soak into the wood and kill any new beetles who decide to munch on your wood. Industry has all sorts of fancy formulations which get painted on and injected into structural timbers, but borax (of which boron is a primary ingredient) and water will work fine. Make a solution 3 parts water to 1 part borax, get a small syringe (with or without a needle, depending on the size of the bore-holes) and inject it into the bore-holes. If the wood surface is untreated, you can also paint the whole wooden object with the solution, and rub away the excess moisture to further protect against future beetle infestation. Let dry thoroughly in the open air. I've had great success with this numerous times over the years with four different species of borers I've encountered in New Zealand. Definitely recommend it, best of luck!

Boron - like we find in Borax powder?
Yes, I re-read and see you already said this.

I've got some old insulin needles I can use.  

One of my biggest worries is that I have a lot of wood in the house, so I don't want this to spread.  The freezer was a temporary idea to give me some time to figure this out.  It's probably not as cold as winter in the Balkans, but I've never been there so I don't know.  

Yes! I realise I wrote a bit of a wall-of-text, but I did mention borax specifically. Should have put it in a separate paragraph so that it was a bit more obvious, sorry!

The primary ingredient in borax is boron, and this is what I've used personally to deal with boring insects--here's the recipe again, separated out for clarity:

M Broussard wrote:  - Make a solution 3 parts water to 1 part borax
 - Get a small syringe (with or without a needle, depending on the size of the bore-holes) and inject it into the bore-holes
 - If the wood surface is untreated, you can also paint the whole wooden object with the solution, and rub away the excess moisture to further protect against future beetle infestation
 - Let dry thoroughly in the open air

A more dilute solution of 8:1 (water to borax) is appropriate for preventative treatment of wood if you have concerns about an item developing borer to begin with.

r ranson wrote:One of my biggest worries is that I have a lot of wood in the house, so I don't want this to spread.  The freezer was a temporary idea to give me some time to figure this out.  It's probably not as cold as winter in the Balkans, but I've never been there so I don't know.  

That's a reasonable worry--not only for your house, but for your local ecosystem. There are lots of invasive wood-boring beetles right now devastating forests across the globe (emerald ash borer and ambrosia beetle)

Freezing them will have knocked them back (stalled development, forced hibernation, possibly killed individuals), so you have a head-start on the problem. The beetles can only infest your home if an adult emerges (you will often see a new exit hole form on the outside surface) and lays eggs on a suitable piece of wood (high moisture content--less of a worry if your home is warm and dry). Given that their life cycles are so long and the pieces you're looking at are relatively small, they will release a relatively small number of beetles overall, and few per unit time. All that is to say: don't stress too much--you're on top of the problem!

We grow Cascabela thevetia (syn: Thevetia peruviana) to kill wood boring insects at Saint Michael's Sustainable Community.  

More and more I'm thinking these are small enough I could mix up the borax and dunk it in the solution.  Submerge it for a min or two, then dry... repeat.  

I'd be inclined to squirt borax directly into the holes, then seal the hole with wax. That ensures that whatever is in that hole can't escape, and also makes it easy to tell which holes you've done already.

r ranson wrote:More and more I'm thinking these are small enough I could mix up the borax and dunk it in the solution.  Submerge it for a min or two, then dry... repeat.  

That will help, certainly, but the liquid may not penetrate into the holes. The capillary effect can hold air inside the borer galleries and protect them from your treatment. It will definitely help protect the surface in future, but if the article is finely sanded, it will also raise the grain and mean you need to refinish it once it dries out (would be a few days, potentially). I still strongly recommend using pressure to inject the solution into each hole just to be sure you've dealt with the current bugs.

The recommended borate insecticides:
Timbor is a powder that mixes with water. One l.5 lbs pouch is mixed with one gallon of water and sprayed to the surface area of infestation. When sprayed it penetrates the entire wood, where it will remain for several years.
An alternative to Timbor is: Boracare. Boracare is a liquid borate that penetrates faster initially than Timbor for the first few hours, but is equal after that. Timbor is considerably cheaper per gallon to use.
Note when using insecticides: Powderpost beetles life cycles vary from 3 months  a year. Emerging larvae could be maturing with adult beetles emerging for up to a year. If the wood is too dry (less than 15%), depth of penetration with the Boracare may only occur to the top 1/4 inch. To solve this, spray the wood first with water to increase moisture.
https://doyourownpestcontrol.com/powderpostbeetles.htm

I feel like we have some kind of wood boring insect in my house the kitchen and bathroom are the worst. Trying to deal with the moisture issue foremost because it's causing a domino affect of problems. But after I put laminate floors in I feel like my floors have a problem now. My kids play on the floor and now they don't want to leave the bed that has a canopy on it.
This is going to sound crazy but I think I'm dealing with multiple things, organisms, insect, parasites who knows.
It gets on clothes, toys,  furniture.
 The wood is the biggest thing i notuced.
Some piece of furniture are so bad i  have thrown them out. Also the window seals are horible, and mow something is falling from our ceilings.

My 5 year old pointed out the cob web super thin faint stuff hanging from the ceiling.
I'm quessing that's the culprit of why I keep getting bit out of no where even after I vacuum and shampoo the carpets..
I'm going nuts and not to mention the wood in the front of our house the wood trim looks like it's getting attacked or eaten by something. Along with the trim in the basement.

Also can wood boring insects bite?