Woodworm Prevention Tips

Help to prevent or control woodworm

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If you are looking to help prevent a woodoworm issue returning or you suspect you have a woodworm infestation but you do not necessarily want to go down the route of professional woodworm treatment; try the following woodworm prevention tips to help prevent or control the investation or to assist in confirming if you have a serious or current woodworm issue.

Prevention Tip 1 - Identify if the woodworm is still active

Adult woodworm beetles are responsible for boring the holes when they exit the wood to breed. This typically happens between May and September. 

A good suggestion is to block the woodworm holes during the winter by painting with a coat of emulsion or applying masking tape. In the spring, you can check if any woodworm beetles have emerged and therefore determine whether you have active woodworm in your timber. The amount of emerging holes will help determine how serious the problem is.

Prevention Tip 2 - Prevent woodworm with low humidity

Keep your home well heated and ventilated. Woodworm prefer timber with higher moisture levels. By keeping humidity levels low and ensuring wood is well ventilated and dry you will help to prevent a woodworm problem occuring. This is as easy as opening up a window on a daily basis to ensure a good a regular airflow throughout your property.

Prevention Tip 3 - Test humidit levels in your property

Following on from tip 2, test the humidity of your wood within your property using a timber moisture meter. A moisture meter costs approx £50, but you can hire one from a hardware store or some specialist contractors. Simply insert the probe and you will get an instant moisture content reading. To give you a point of reference, a moisture content of 20% would be cause for concern. Woodworm prefer timber with a moisture content of over 18% however, woodworm can tolerate moisture contents as low as 12% for short periods. At lower moisture levels, the rate of woodworm colonisation tends to be low and infestation will die out with prolonged periods of reduced moisture levels. You can assume that a reading of 11% puts you at very low risk of a woodworm issue occuring within a property.

Prevention Tip 4 - Remove woodworm infected items

Remove all pieces of furniture and non-structural timber that are woodworm infested. As you might have guessed, this will help prevent or minimise the impact of further woodworm infestations within your property. Once the woodworm larve turns into a beetle they can travel around your property to breed and lay eggs in other suitable pieces of timber. By keeping infested pieces of timber out of your home, you will help prevent the spread of the problem.

Prevention Tip 5 - Install electric fly traps

Install electric fly traps in loft spaces and under-ventilated areas to kill emerging adult woodworm beetles in the summer months. It helps prevent and control the threat of a further woodworm infestation in other areas of the property. This last suggestion might not be feasible for all however, it is a great suggestion to help prevent the beetles from spreading to other timber surfaces.

Need a little more help to Prevent or control woodworm

We realise that the prospect of treating woodworm can be daunting. It is why we are here to help.

If you want to speak to someone regarding your woodworm issue then contact us on Wise Property Care today on 0800 65 22 678 or find your local branch details.  Alternatively, scroll down to complete our Contract Form below.

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