Troubled by sawdust/ sand/ flakes found at the bottom of your wooden furniture? You might be shocked to know what they are!

You might not realise that you have a wood borer problem in your house until the damage becomes visible. Therefore, an early identification is the key before more harm is caused.

What are those?

The sawdust/ sand/ flakes are actually droppings of the wood borers; which are also known as woodboring / powderpost beetles. Eeek!

Yes, we are quite sure about that. But why do they do that and why are they there?

To begin with, wood borers are wood damaging insect that damage structural and furniture, practically anything made from wood. Wood is the main source of food for them and since there are loads of food (wood) in your house, they are here to stay; thus, damaging your furniture.

So where are they exactly?

Try to imagine yourself staying in a cave without a toilet. After staying there for a while, there would be a build-up of waste in the cave till there is no space left. You then dig a hole out of the cave and began to push all the waste out of the hole to make space for yourself. As such, the waste starts to fall all over the ground.

The above example might be a little too gross, but we’re sure that’s the best way to make you understand.

Just try to look anywhere above the sawdust/ sand/ flakes are (droppings). You might be able to find some pin-sized holes in your wooden furniture. These holes are the entrance to the “caves” in the earlier example.

Now that you know where they are, can we kill them right away?

That’s easier said than done. As we only have access to the opening of the caves, we usually can’t locate them exactly especially when they’ve gone too deep within the furniture and the paths are usually not a direct, straight

Now, this is the part where most pest controllers wouldn’t want you to be aware of.

What we can do is to spray general pesticides into the holes and forcing the chemicals as far as possible to reach where they are.

One take away from us is, “As long as your pesticide can reach where these tiny pests are, all you need is some general pesticides.” The only reason your pesticides don’t work is due to them not reaching the wood borers. Therefore, it wouldn’t work even if you pay for extravagant chemicals/treatments.

Here are some helpful facts about Wood Borers:

  • Adult beetles lay their eggs in wood cracks. They infest floorboards, furniture, wooden beams and any other wooden objects in your property.
  • Larvae burrow deep into the wood where they feed. In the process, they make a maze of tunnels over several years.
  • If infestation left untreated, timbers within a building can be weakened and may lead to structural failure of timbers.
  • AND, DO NOT confuse these traits with that of termites. Contact pest professionals if necessary and be an informed consumer!