Woodworm (tarli) in the roof.

08/12/2010 - 13:18

Our NOT very old beams and wood-lined roof have little holes in them and wood dust seen below on the floor. The wood is rovere and the woodworm seem to be only, so far, in the lighter bits of wood. How quickly will they spread and do they do so all year round or just in warm weather? How quickly have we got to solve the problem before it gets out of hand? Some of our ceilings are quite high up so going up a ladder to poke syringes into little holes doesn't look like fun. Anyone got any experience of all this?

Topic

Renovating

Comment

Get down the ironmongers and buy some antitarme and brush it on sharpish - rovere isnt a very hard wood as hard woods go, adn they'll have a ball. Paint it on and sleep elsewhere otherwise you'll be hallucinating for a couple of days. It should at least kill whats there and buy you some time.

Thanks Ram. Do you mean paint it over the holes or has it got to go into them?

My advice would be to call an expert, have a diagnose and an initial treatment. Then it is easier to do the follow ups yourselves. You will find a company serving your area under "Disinfezione, disinfestazione e derattizzazione". Ask them to check the "termiti" as well. Good luck!

We had similar issues 2 years ago, ended up getting a 'professional' in to do the whole house. We went off to Bologna and Numana for four days and left the professionals to it. When we came back, my gawd.............the fumes the fumes...........it probably took another three days to clear the house properly. They did a great job, every beam in the house hit hard with pressurised 'killer stuff' (!)'............no sign of anything since...........cost about 2,000euros if I recall. well worth it in my view. I suspect that we will have it done every 3 to 5 years..........the price of living here eh !? S

We've only got them in about 5 places, little patches about a few inches long and one 3cm wide that goes about a meter along the beam. We're not there again until end September so I hope they don't spread and I'm desperate to deal with them quickly now, but the fumes stuff sounds scary. I wonder if we just use tall ladders and inject every hole, it might keep it under control, if we keep an eye on it and always do it immediately, each time. I think I'd rather inject each hole rather than spray the house. And our roof manufacturer wrote that the timber had been treated with 'Lignex' anti tarli, but no guarantees of how long it would last, if at all. Thanks all, for your thoughts.

I just slap it on. Seems to work for me - but you have to do it all at the same time or they just migrate.

I'm afraid that injecting the holes is almost a complete waste of time. The holes are called "flight holes" - precisely because they are where the mature adults have come out and flown away, not where the little beggars have got in. So, yes, there might be a little bit of absorption into the timber surrounding the flight holes, but it won't really have much effect. From what I remember the adults, after mating, lay eggs on the rough surface of the wood (or sometimes in old flight holes), these hatch into tiny larvae that burrow their way into the wood, have a good feed while they are growing and maturing, then emerge (I think it's about 4 years later), mate, lay eggs, and so it all starts again. Spraying / brushing and putting up with the smell really is the only effective remedy.

Thanks, Serrano, do I have to brush/spray every timber in the house in advance of infestation or just the areas they have already gone into?

Unfortunately I think the ideal answer would have to be 'yes'. The problem is that you can't be absolutely sure which areas they have got into until they come out - by which time the damage will have been done. However, we have to be realistic about these things - obviously there are a lot of timbers you aren't going to be able to get to anyway, so I think I would treat all surfaces of the timbers you know have been affected and also any nearby, and leave it at that for the moment. Then keep a careful watch for ever (a big advantage of hard floors is that you can easily see if there is any dust). Note however, that this is not professional advice. Oh, and I forgot to say before, generally they can't get into painted or varnished wood (assuming that all surfaces and ends are sealed). If you see any new flight holes in such situations they are usually a sign of an infestation before the paint/varnish was applied. This is then a case for injecting directly into the flight holes, as the adults sometimes lay eggs there.

Thanks Serrano, that is the most promising and useful explanation so far. We did see dust on the hard floors and know where the escape holes are (fingers crossed). We were considering varnishing the beams and if that would protect them from further infestation then we're going to have to do a Michelangelo up there, bit by bit until they're done. Rather that than spray with toxic stuff that can't do us humans any good either. And keeping a careful watch forever is quite do-able, along with all the other careful watches we are making for ants, mice, lizards fallen into the rainwater tanks, hornets in the shutters, caprioli nibbling the newly planted trees etc etc.

Listen.............three little words.....................DO THE LOT.......... another one................(ten little two letter words....................) "if it is to be, it is up to me.............." (an old golfing saying.................) just do it! S