False Powderpost Beetle Infestations Are Difficult To Notice Despite The Extensive Damage They Inflict To Structural Wood, Which Sometimes Results In Structural Collapse
Termites are not the only insect pests homeowners need to watch out for when it comes to the structural integrity of their home. The wood-boring insect known as the false powderpost beetle can cause just as much devastation. To make matters worse, infestations of false powderpost beetles can go unnoticed until the infested wood is literally falling apart.
False powderpost beetles will lay their eggs in the cracks and pores of wood, and it is their larvae that bore into that wood, carving out extensive tunnels that weaken the structural integrity and eventually lead to it collapsing and even disintegrating if the infestation goes unnoticed for a long period of time. The larvae produce a coarse, gritty powder-like frass, which builds up in the tunnels as they bore their way through the wood. Infestations of regular powderpost beetles are often detected through the presence of the finer powder their larvae produce, which can be found piled outside the holes they create in wood. However, the coarser powder produced by false powderpost beetles is much less frequently found piled outside of their tunnels due to how tightly it is packed inside the galleries and its grittier texture, which keeps it from being pushed outside of the tunnels as easily as the finer powder of the powderpost beetle larvae.
This often prevents the detection of infestations of false powderpost beetles until the wood has been extensively damaged, many times to the point where it collapses or disintegrates. Infestations of false powderpost beetles can, therefore, frequently result in much greater damage to structural wood and be costly to deal with by the time they are discovered. False powderpost beetles will infest both soft and hard woods, as well as non-wood materials, making them a danger to much of the structural materials found in people’s homes.
Have you ever found a coarse, powder-like substance piled outside small holes that were bored into the wood in your home?
