active borers

[sundancewfs]

I have been removing the old insulation in the roof to make way for new R5 batts. In the process I have come across some ceiling joists with active borer in. (fresh wood dust and pin holes in the joist).
Is there away to treat these myself? with out calling in a pest controller for a full on blitz of the roof as my wife is pregnant at the moment.

[Bloss]

If it is lyctus borer what you describe means they have gone and are no longer active. The larvae change into the insect which then bore their way out of the sapwood (and that is the only part of the timber they live in).

SEE: http://www.csiro.au/resources/pspr.html

CSIRO does not recommend treatment for this borer, since the damage to timbers is generally decorative and non-structural. A tree consists of a centre core of wood known as heartwood; a thinner layer known as sapwood, which is located, just beneath the bark. When timber is milled, up to 25% sapwood can be present within that timber, and since 75% of the effected piece is heartwood, it remains structurally sound and is not considered necessary to treat.

Most likely there will be no negative consequences unless the amount of sapwood on the structural timber in which they are visible is significant. The BCA allows that maximum of 25% of sapwood in structural timbers, but few houses ever have anything like that - most would be under 10%. Even on timber that does have some sapwood it is usually around edges.

In your situation the ceiling joists would have already sagged if the damage was significant enough to weaken them as it is most likely that the borer larvae were in the timber during construction and emerged shortly thereafter.

The Australian wood borer creates larger holes but again unless there has been significant structural impact there is no treatment. It is quite possible that if you contact a pest control company they will tell you that treatment is needed.

You need to be sure that lyctus is what you have (post a close up picture or two or google images and compare with what you have), but that is highly likely from your description so you need not worry and need to nothing more.

[bugsy]

i agree with the above post

[bingoshelley]

hi we had this problem in the house we brought i thought it was termites called pest guy he came told me not to worry about it and didnt even charge me for coming out to look.so if it is borers your safe.

[sundancewfs]

Thanks guys , make me feel a lot more at ease. I looked over the csiro site. Very interesting. The house was built in the late 60's and the blow in insulation has probably encapsulated the dust since then. Its all jarrah framing.