11012 Woodworm

[quote=Clive Soley;103751]I have a house in the hills outside Ascoli Piceno. In September I found a small pile of sawdust and in the beam above a newly drilled woodworm hole. Since then I have found others. I have injected the individual holes with a syringe but I now think I need to paint/spray the beams.
Does anyone know a company in or near Ascoli or in Marche that could advise or carry out the work? Alternatively does anyone know the Italian name for a woodworm control spray or paint and where I might buy it?
Clive.[/quote]
Hi- its called anti tarli paint or Contro tarli and you can buy it at most Feramenta's /hardware shops- it just need to be painted on like a varnish.

We had our mill professionally treated but the people who did it work in the Lucca area.
Look in your local Yellow Pages or through Internet using the words "DISINFESTAZIONE TARLI".
Also, you can find plenty of products available at your local BRICO store.

Hmmmm.............seems like a lot of this around.............. We had similar and had the whole house treated with pressurised insecticide.........so far so good.......... the house had to be vacant for three days (VERY bad smell)..........but so far so good, let me know if you need a contact number, we are 70 mins away near Santa Vittoria

The best thing from our own experience is to call in the professionals first to do the initial treatment. Then you can reinforce what they have done with sprays and injections. And it requires permanent checking and maintenance.
Also, look for termites, they like dark, humid places and they can destroy a house before you realise that they have been there.

Many thanks Damien and Sharon - that's very helpful. I liked your web site too. A lot better than ours! I think we need lessons in presentation!
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[quote=Gala Placidia;103756]We had our mill professionally treated but the people who did it work in the Lucca area.
Look in your local Yellow Pages or through Internet using the words "DISINFESTAZIONE TARLI".
Also, you can find plenty of products available at your local BRICO store.[/quote]

Hi Gala

We have a problem with tarli in our house near casciana therme (about 20 mins from pisa down the fi pi li). Do you know if the people you used might come this far and if so would it be possible to have their number??? Many thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Fiona Hazard

Hi Fiona, I have sent you a Private Message with their details. I do not know whether they will cover your area, but they should be able to recommend someone. They also have a phone contact at Viareggio, but the ones who worked for us came from the Lucca office.

The treatment that we had was impossible to live with so we tootled off on a 'trip' for three nights.................when we got back home it was still leave the doors open for days!

So far though it seems to have worked (although we are in winter)

We were not living in the house at the time they did the treatment. We came back three months later and there was no smell. Nevertheless, I would advise to protect soft furnishings, etc.

If the beams are chestnut then I wouldnt panic-the woodworm can only gnaw at the surface wood-the rest is too dense for them-they prefer softer woods. The syringe in the holes should be enough- I personally would want to breath in all the toxins a highly concentrated all over treatment provides. The older,tradional solutions were calce or limewash which is why most of the travi in old houses were white..I'm having my travi re calced ! good luck shas

Sorry Shas, but I prefer to have properties inspected by experts to check not only on tarli but also other hidden pests, rot, etc. They can tell you exactly what you are looking at. Termites are also very tricky. In France it is compulsory to give a comprehensive written report on the condition of all wood before you sell a property. I think that it is a wise thing to do. Chestnut may be a bit more resistant but it is still attacked.
As for limewash, we have no Italian experience; however, we had to have a treatment done to a house in the South of Spain where a limewash every year has been customary for centuries and we also had to replace several of those limewashed beams as they were full of holes...
So perhaps it is all popular beliefs not backed by reality.

I believe diesel used to be used in the old days and keeps most bugs away. Just paint on. Smelly at first but wears off.

I have heard similar about chestnut beams being more resistent to wood boring insects than the softer counterparts, looking at some of the cheshnut in my casa I would tend to agree they dont appear to be doing much more than surface damage. Given the beams are nearly a foot square I am not too concerned but would still recommend having it looked at if you have fresh saw dust everywhere. I havent encoutnered any in mine yet so I continue to clean up and treat myself.