Wood Enemies- Wood Borers

Wood borers or common furniture beetles

The common furniture beetle or common house borer is a wood boring beetle.
In the larva stage it bores in wood and feeds upon it.
Adults do not feed; they just reproduce. The female lays her eggs into cracks in wood or inside old exit holes, if available. The eggs hatch after some three weeks, each producing a 1 mm long, creamy white, C-shaped larva. For three to four years the larvae bore semi-randomly through timber, following and eating the starchy part of the wood grain, and grow up to 7 mm. They come nearer to the wood surface when ready to pupate. They excavate small spaces just under the wood surface and take up to eight weeks to pupate. The adults then break through to the surface as adults, making a 1mm to 1.5 mm exit hole and spilling dust, the first visible signs of an infestation.
Borers only attacks seasoned sapwood timber, not live or fresh wood. Also, it usually does not attack heartwood of the timbers. This is readily observed from infested structures, where one piece of timber may be heavily attacked but an adjacent one left virtually untouched according to whether it is made from the heartwood or the sapwood part of a tree trunk. Infestations are also usually a problem of old wooden houses built with untreated timbers. Some building regulations state that timbers with more than 25% sapwood may not be used, so that wood borer infections can not substantially weaken structures.
Infection, past or present, is diagnosed by small round exit holes of 1 to 1.5 mm diameter. Active infections feature the appearance of new exit holes and fine wood dust around the holes.

Some types of wood borers