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Termites or other chewing varmint?


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As happyj seems to describe and as I was told by a professional licensed 'termite inspector' in California, the posthole beetle class of infestation of a wooden structure requires expensive pressurized tenting which penetrates far deeper than the tent fumigation required for drywood termites.  I had such beetles in a unpainted garage structure, but they eventually went away on their own. I found it worthwhile to secure a professional diagnosis.  Lakeside, brick construction might obviate serious structural concerns, but I'm consciously designing a new house down there without wood as far as possible, and only where exposed and not structurally critical...

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Locally known as "Polilla" aka "False Powder Post Beetle" or "Corn Borer", active in the area especially where "corn" is growing

My old casa note book has a name Tyson at Prisa for Contra Termite

We have a traditional Palapa that has the powder post beetle which is active right now. I have the Palapa sprayed every other year, in the interim I hand pick the fallen borer's and save them a Glass Jar, less than a 100/year. You know their active when you have a fine dust on the tile floor below the roof. It seems that as the wood ages they are far less active & fly else where looking for a more suitable meal of corn. Right now no "Frass" Google wood dust for great images

I stand corrected, just posted what I had been told but neglected to check mr google

Edited by mkshawn
sp error, apology
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2 hours ago, mkshawn said:

Locally known as "Polilla" aka "False Powder Post Beetle" or "Corn Borer", active in the area especially where "corn" is growing

My old casa note book has a name Tyson at Prisa for Contra Termite

We have a traditional Palapa that has the powder post beetle which is active right now. I have the Palapa sprayed every other year, in the interim I hand pick the fallen borer's and save them a Glass Jar, less than a 100/year. You know their active when you have a fine dust on the tile floor below the roof. It seems that as the wood ages they are far less active & fly else where looking for a more suitable meal of corn. Right now no "Frass" Goole wood dust for great images

Most of us don't have corn fields in our casas and the little devils don't care how old the wood is. I Bought a 100+ year old blanket box and table at a bazaar here and they both had active larva in them. We also have a lot of wood in our casa and have noted the start and had pro treated by an exterminator. By the way polilla is the name for moth which these ain't.

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An old fashion remedy which works well.  Mix an insecticide with kerosene or turpentine and spray the infected areas.  The kerosene will deeply penetrate the wood and the beetles will be killed and the larvae as they eat the wood.

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Look at the OP's foto of his bamboo/rattan chair and then tell us that you would do this if it were yours. Your method would not do anything to bugs in bamboo except make it stink like haitch. The beetles aren't there long ,just enough time to emerge out of an exit hole they have made as my foto has shown so you may kill them ruin the furniture and not get the larva which are deep down and munching wood to their hearts content. Boy there sure is a lot of lack of knowledge being posted here with some crazy ideas,some quite destructive.

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Having owned a furniture store and several antique stores I am not exactly illiterate  on the subject.  If applied to the bottom of the furniture the kerosene does not really show and will evaporate in a week or two.  The kerosene gets the poison deep where the larva is and will kill it when it eats the wood.  The preferred way to kill the larva is in a kiln as they cannot survive when the temperature gets above 120 degrees F'  In Oklahoma when the temperature got over 100 degrees outside, I would put the furniture in my car with all the windows rolled up and parked in the sun.  30 minutes is supposed to take care of the problem but I always left for several hours.  If a person can figure how to get the temperature over 120 degrees on the furniture  for a sustained time the problem will be taken care of.

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Ok,, so posthole beetles, apparently , judging from the pile of super-fine powder in the rather poor photos I took, but I can't actually see any holes! Who can I call, locally, to help me with this? I don't know where to start, especially since I'm high-risk for covid and have hardly left the house for over 2 months! But now I'm terrified of having a real infestation that spreads to my other furniture! Hope someone has suggestions, and quickly. In the meantime, guess I'll move the chair out onto my terrace and cover so the birds don't trash it. I love this piece of furniture and I'm just sick about what's happening.

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12 hours ago, Karina G said:

Ok,, so posthole beetles, apparently , judging from the pile of super-fine powder in the rather poor photos I took, but I can't actually see any holes! Who can I call, locally, to help me with this? I don't know where to start, especially since I'm high-risk for covid and have hardly left the house for over 2 months! But now I'm terrified of having a real infestation that spreads to my other furniture! Hope someone has suggestions, and quickly. In the meantime, guess I'll move the chair out onto my terrace and cover so the birds don't trash it. I love this piece of furniture and I'm just sick about what's happening.

I recently used FUMI-TECH  for a carpenter ant problem. Didn't even have to give Luis the Spanish name for them because his English is excellent. Cell# 333-100-9027. I'm very high risk so don't let that stop you from dealing with this.

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Thanks for the info, everyone. I've hired an exterminator who wrapped the chair in plastic and it's in quarantine on my terrace until Monday. Then a few more days for any fumes to dissipate. I hope I made the right choice; HJ did say pieces with these beetles should be tented for "at least 2 weeks", and even then he uses some kind of injected toxin after. I want to do whatever it takes; the cat would never forgive me if I get it wrong, and I really love this chair.

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Those critters enter through raw, exposed wood; usually at cut ends of moulding and the bottoms of furniture legs.

We turned infested tables and chairs upside-down and injected mineral oil into the obvious entry holes, which is also where the dust exits. Repeating this for several days will saturate the wood, making it unappetizing, and also suffocate any insect which gets oil on its body.  It worked!

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