Powderpost Beetles Can Infest Wood in Birmingham Alabama Homes!

Michael Wienecke
Hey, so today I want to talk about powderpost beetles. And if you have ever experienced powderpost beetles, then you know exactly what they do they leave a fine frass powder on the floor, it’s normally white, yellow, and that is the signs of powderpost beetles.

Travis McGowin
You know, a lot of the the crawl spaces that I’ve inspected in, in older houses have been prone to having some sort of old identifiers that there were at one time powderpost beetles, and typically, you know, on the floor joist floor members inside the crawlspace, I mean, little holes everywhere. But the key thing there is that powder, that identifier that there’s activity going on, and that usually looks like a, like you said a whitish yellowish colored powder that’s kind of been pushed out of those holes. So it makes like a, almost like a rain down effect on the side of the wood. And that’s always usually an indicator that there’s activity going on inside of the wood in that crawlspace.

Michael Wienecke
Yeah, that’s right. And then, you know, a lot of times people freak out about powderpost beetles, typically, they do not reinvest. So there’s really not, not really a need to just, you know, I’ve worried more about termites and I would powderpost beetles, because we see it all the time. And if they’re if you just see the holes, and you don’t see any of the powder, then that’s old, there’s really no need to worry about it.

Travis McGowin
Yeah, definitely. Although I will say this, you know, I think there’s some misconceptions out there from people. I had a customer this is back probably a year or two ago, that called us because they had had an inspection from another company. The other company said, Hey, we think you got powderpost beetles. And I assume, I guess that the other company declined to do the treatment on the house. And of course, this gentleman was very concerned about it and wanted it treated. So he ended up calling us and I went out to inspect the crawlspace. And sure enough, there were holes and powder coming out. And the The interesting part about this is the wood in question, the wood that was infested wasn’t the old wood underneath the crawlspace, it was actually new wood that they had put inside the crawlspace that they had recently bought from a big retail store. I’m not gonna say any names on retail chain, but they had just bought it and had it put in and a couple months later, lo and behold, they’ve got a powderpost beetle infestation coming out of the wood in this wood was supposed to have been treated wood.

Michael Wienecke
Well, let’s talk about that. So when when the wood is brought into the sawmill, it’s not invested from from the forest or whatever it’s brought into the sawmill and then that wood is stored. That is when that wood starts to become infested. And they’re supposed to go through treatment styles, they’re supposed to put a type of bore care on it, or they’re supposed to do a heat treatment. But it’s heat treatments just aren’t as effective. And they take forever. I mean, you have to heat wood up for I think it’s 24 hours at 124 to 135 degrees. And that’s just, that’s, that’s hard to heat that much lumber. But, you know, 111 bundle at a time, I guess you’d say?

Travis McGowin
Well, and you also, you know, with wood, there’s there’s other factors to consider more so than just heat to you’re talking about heat, you’re talking about moisture content inside the wood. And like you said, whether or not the wood itself has been treated with some sort of pesticide or bore a type substance that’s going to, you know, penetrate down inside of that wood and have a long lasting effect. But like I said, I think that there’s just a common misconception that, well, if you go to a store or a retailer, and you purchase wood, well, it’s been treated. So it’s good to go, you know, and that’s not always the case, you can’t always just act under that reassurance that that there’s not going to ever be a problem.

Michael Wienecke
Right. And then but the customer you had that they were emerging. I mean, there was no structural damage done to the wood, it was just a couple pinholes that were that were coming out. So I know you traded it, and typically likes that they don’t reinvest any, any beetles that are emerging out of that are going to die. So pretty easy to fix.

Travis McGowin
Yeah, and like I said, a good if someone has that problem has that issue in their house with their wood. It’s nothing that a bore a treatment cannot, you know, go ahead and take care of them. And the other good part about that is these these treatments like say with borides products, like board care, I guess or Tim bore or one of those products is that once that wood is treated, I mean that that product absorbs down inside of that wood and that product is there for a very very, very long time. And so it’s not just effect against things like powderpost beetles or other types of beetles, it is also effective in helping to prevent infestation for things like termites as well.

Michael Wienecke
Yeah, that’s right. So I want to talk a little bit to about some miscommunication between people thinking they have powderpost beetles and people thinking that they have are actually having stored product pests. So I know, you know, a lot of the flower beetles and powderpost beetles can be, you know, that you can think you have one in the other.

Travis McGowin
Yeah, you know, and the other thing that I will say to differentiate is your powderpost beetles are your going to be less likely to actually see the beetles themselves. Most of the time, they’re going to be inside of that wood. They’re very rarely are you ever going to actually physically see the beetles themselves. Whereas a confused flower beetle or other type of stored product pests crawls around a lot of people will have a mis misconception that that weevils are beetles too, or some type of beetle. So you’re usually gonna see these pests. I’ve had a customer that had some confused flour beetles at one time. These things were everywhere, when I tell you the room that had them. They were crawling all over the counters. They were they were they were just everywhere. And actually, they they had bought these like wicker, some type of scent, a material baskets from a home decor store. And then they put these baskets in their house, and then all of a sudden, they’ve got confused flour beetles everywhere. So it’s kind of interesting, but like I said, typically with the powderpost beetles, you just you just don’t physically see the beetles very often at all.

Michael Wienecke
Yeah, that’s right. And I mean, they’re not going to they don’t have a pupa either. So you’re not going to see that that little cocoon up in the in the corner of the pantry or anything like that. Also the powderpost beetles that come out at night so that’s another reason you don’t see the beetle.

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