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| Mysterious pile of powder under a kitchen chair. |
What’s this wood powder under my chair?
Just when I thought termites were the only thing devouring
the wood in our jungalow, recently, I discovered a little pile of wood powder
under a kitchen chair. A mini Saharan desert forming. It was very fine, like baby powder, and definitely coming
from one source. Well, I chose to ignore
it for a day or two. Maybe it was a hallucination induced by living in a jungalow.
Predictably, a day or two later, the powder pile became bigger. I
turned the chair upside down and yes, sure enough, there was a hole in it.
About a quarter-inch in diameter. So I
took it outside and grabbed the Termiticide $45 bottle and went to town
spraying all around the hole.
When our Akamai Pest Solutions termite guys came over, after
they did some touch-up around the house, I asked if they knew about a bug that
left wood powder.
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| The puka (or hole) that the beetle made. |
Of course they knew. It was the powder post beetle! David proceeded to give me a little
introduction. Powder post beetles like
older wood, and will eat newer wood only as a last resort. Often, their company gets calls from
Filipino families that have brought their nice old wood furniture from the
mother country, furniture full of beetles in stasis. The beetles don’t necessarily
start munching right away. We’ve had
this dining set for at least a few years and this is the first sign of any
munching. The beetles are also, thankfully, easier to kill than termites. They
live close to the hole and are sensitive to chemicals. So they can be killed
with a strong dish soap, or a bleach solution, or the spray I used, which
turned out to be overkill.
Here's a ridiculously short video of David talking about powder post beetles while doing some termite treatment. A gecko is chirping in the background.
Lyctids, or more commonly known as powderpost beetles, receive their names from a unique behavior that the larvae exhibits inside their galleries in the wood. The larvae will produce an extremely fine, dusty, or powder-like frass, hence their name, powderpost beetles. Powderpost beetles are all over the world, including the United States.
ReplyDeletepowder post beetles control
Not sure why this comment is not showing in my screen: (copied and pasted from my comments section): "Lyctids, or more commonly known as powderpost beetles, receive their names from a unique behavior that the larvae exhibits inside their galleries in the wood. The larvae will produce an extremely fine, dusty, or powder-like frass, hence their name, powderpost beetles. Powderpost beetles are all over the world, including the United States."
ReplyDeleteThose things suck they will keep going and going watch who you deal with there is a company that has had years of troubles
ReplyDeleteYes, bugs are so pernicious. Especially here where there's no winter.
ReplyDeletewhat kind of spray did you use to get rid of the beetles?
ReplyDeleteWe used something called Cedar Spray (www.cedarbugfree.com), a nontoxic based cedar oil that is marketed here just for bugs. But I've also heard you can use a spray of liquid dish soap diluted in water, that the soap dries the bugs and makes them dehydrate.
ReplyDelete