As Spring approaches and the weather gets warmer and more humid the wood worms start to chew their way to the outside of the beam, joist or furniture that they are living in.
When they get close to freedom they stop and go through a metamorphosis just like a butterfly changing from caterpillar to beautiful butterfly although in the case of the wood worm it goes from a little white maggot into a dull brown or black insect.
No very romantic and a real nuisance.
They insects at the beetle stage are normally seen walking on furniture, picture frames and windows. The bad news is that they can also fly. They fly around your home looking for Mr or Mrs Right and once they have mated the female lays her eggs on the surface of any exposed timber.
The eggs are so small that you can hardly see them and any normal house cleaning will not remove them.
Once the eggs hatch the miniature grub chews its way into the wood getting fatter and fatter for up to four years before its ready to leave the wood and start the cycle again.
It is absolutely no good applying woodworm killer to the exit holes on the outside of the infected wood. These are EXIT only so your wood worm killer will have NO Effect.
What about all the different types of wood boring insects/wood worm that we have in Portugal. Do we need a different solution for each type of wood worms.
Thankfully no.
We can apply a wood worm killer and preventative to all your visible wood work including the roof space. It normally takes less than a day to carry out the work and you can be back in the home one and a half hours after treatment.
If there are any woodworm beetles that survive the treatment inside the wood. When a female emerges from the wood and lays her eggs on the surface of any exposed timber the eggs will be killed by the treatment. Any new beetles arriving from elsewhere will also die as they cannot live on the treated timber.
for more information and a survey of your property contact Castelo Construction
info@casteloconstruction.com