How To Get Rid Of Wood Boring Beetles On Furniture Naturally

Boring wood beetles are harmful and can be a problem if they enter your home. They can damage the wood in your home or around your home. They lay their eggs in holes or crevices in the wood; the larvae eat the wood from the inside.

When a wood beetle infestation is not treated properly, it can become a very serious problem. It can damage your floors, wooden furniture, doors, etc.

In this guide, we’ll talk about:

• How to identify Wood-Boring Beetles
• Why You have ground beetles in your house
• What Kind of Damage is caused by Wood-Boring Beetles in your house
• What Wood-Boring Beetles are attracted to
• Different, proven ways to get rid of Wood-Boring Beetles on furniture fast (Naturally)
• And more

Below you can learn a little more about these annoying and unpleasant pests.

What Are Wood-Boring Beetles?

The wood-boring beetle is one of the species of beetles that are known to destroy wood. It is a pest very similar to termites, and it is also known as wood borers or as gunpowder post beetles. They have these names because they can turn wood into powder.

There are three types of wood beetles that are:

• Lctid wood beetles: These insects prefer hardwood for flooring, paneling, and furniture. They generally infest wood that has not been properly kiln-dried.
• Anobiid wood beetles: These beetles prefer moist, softwood.
• Bostriquid wood beetles: These types of beetles infest both soft and hardwood. They prefer window sills, floors, and furniture.

If you notice a wood borer beetle infestation in your home, you should seek help immediately.

How To Identify Wood-Boring Beetles On Your Furniture?

Wood-boring beetles are pests that can be very beneficial when talking about the forest ecosystem. But if they enter your home, they are not so beneficial because they can damage all the wood.

These adult beetles can be less than 1 inch long, while the woodworms can vary between 1 to 7 millimeters in length. They have a head, thorax, and body, they have six legs and antennae, their exoskeleton is hard, and they have wings. Woodworms, which are the larvae of adult beetles, are like small, fat worms. Their bodies are striated or striped and can bend as they move.

Their color can vary when they are adults; they can be between black or rusty red. Old wood piercers can be gray to black. Woodcutting beetles’ woodworms are cream to white with a dark head.

What Causes Wood Boring Beetles?

These woodcutting insects can live in your home for 2 to 5 years, eating the wood until it is destroyed. Adult wood beetles emerge from the wood as it grows. If you want to identify an infestation, you should look for small holes in the surface.

The factors that can cause an infestation of these are:

• Wood beetles can fly; although their flight is not long, they can fly out the window and enter like any other insect.
• The old furniture is a draw for these pesky pests.
• Second-hand furniture or furniture that has been in an infested home can have these insects.
• High humidity and places with poor ventilation.

What Attracts Them?

As mentioned above, wood-boring beetles are attracted to damp wood. You should try to keep your furniture dry, as well as your windows and doors.

Signs of Wood-boring beetle Infestation on wood

If you want to know if you have a wood beetle infestation, you should keep in mind the following aspects:

• Check for holes or tunnels

Check the wood and see if there are round exit holes; these are short tunnels. The beetles lay their eggs in cracks or holes in wood. These holes can be 1.5 to 2 mm in diameter but can vary depending on the beetle type.

It is one of the most common signs, and these holes indicate that the larvae have already left the wood.

• Wood dust

Check for wood dust in your home. You will see this dust near the wooden furniture, and you will see the holes simultaneously. The powder, when fresh, is white, and you will see that it does not agglutinate. Instead, the old wood powder is already yellow and is lumpier.

Also Read: How to Get Rid of Soldier Beetles Naturally

What do they eat?

The eggs are white and begin to feed on the wood directly from the egg for three or more years.

Damage Caused By Wood-Boring Beetles

These types of pests can damage wood in or around your home.

How to Get Rid of Boring Wood Beetles on Furniture Naturally

The first thing to do is to check the wood to verify that it is indeed wood-boring beetles. Follow the steps below:

• Determine if the infestation is active

Before seeking treatment, you should check the wood for infestation. Wood dust is one of the signs that you have this pest in your home. Check for white powder near the wood, and this means the infestation is active. If the dust is yellow and lumpy, the infestation is old.

When you see the holes, the woodworms have already matured and have already become beetles and left the wood. When you see the holes, you must seal them.

• You must replace the wood

If you find wood that has already been infested, you can replace it with a new and perfect condition.

• You Can treat wood

You can use many treatments to treat the wood, and it will kill the beetles correctly. If the wood is not finished, you can treat it directly.

• You Can use heat to treat furniture

Furniture that is infested with wood-boring beetles can be treated with heat. You can keep your furniture at a temperature between 140 and 150 degrees F.

How To Prevent Wood-Boring Beetles From Getting Into Your Furniture

• You can treat the wood and allow it to cure properly
• Change the wood to prevent the infestation from spreading to other wood surfaces.
• You can seal cracks and crevices to prevent these pests from breeding.

With these steps, you can get rid of and prevent these pesky insects from your home. If the problem is very big, you should seek help from professionals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does borax kill beetles in wood?

Simply put borax or borates that are acids that are like Natural water-soluble salt. They’re about as poisonous as table salt to pets and humans but kill the pests as termites, powder post beetles, and old home borers. And, it can kill the wood-destroying insects which cause rot.

Does the bleach kill insects in wood?

Wood is usually home to the big ants, termites, and other pests. The bleach can infiltrate into the timber as well as kill any pests harboring inside. And once twenty-four hours has elapsed, take out the timber and rinse it off completely. You’ll now have to soak the wood once again.

How can you treat wood with the borax?

A Borax element within the wood means this particular wood is going to be helpful at repelling insect creatures, inhibiting flame, and curing much faster by receiving treatment with a simple water and Borax way. And spray one side and next switch on edge as well as spray the edge, and then switch and spray on the other side.

How can you eliminate furniture beetles?

In case you suspect your timber is infested with wood-boring beetles or woodworms, treating the wood using a borate would be the most powerful method to eliminate the active pests. And remove finishes from wood that’s been painted or perhaps sealed before treating. Choose a solution with borate to your wood treatment.

Where are the wood-boring beetles from?

The beetles generally infest moist and mostly decayed softwood timber, which has a moisture content of more than fourteen %. They’re much more likely to be discovered in damp areas or buildings with poor water or drainage leaks. They’re not likely to be contained in buildings with the central heating where moisture content is reduced.

Can the wood beetles bite people?

It’s pretty improbable that typical furniture beetles bite or perhaps sting, so they shouldn’t pose some health risks to pets or humans.

How can you tell if you’ve wood-boring beetles?

• Fresh exit gaps in timber – round or perhaps oval-shaped with edges that are sharp, the gaps will surface fresh and clean. 
• Tunnels in the timber – sometimes known as’ galleries’ that are usually difficult to see.
• Bore dust – due to emerging adult beetles, typically noticeable below the infested wood.

Do the wood-boring beetles spread?

The powderpost beetles can attack hardwoods, seemingly because these woods have skin pores so that they are able to lay eggs; softwoods do not have such pores. After they emerge, the wood-boring beetles spread to some other wood surfaces exactly where they can lay eggs onto the incomplete surfaces or perhaps in cracks or any other openings.