Woodbug beetle: lifestyle and habitat

In nature, there are a huge number of insects, some of which amaze the imagination with their impeccable appearance, others make one admire the coherence of life in the colony. But there are those that do not cause anything but negativity, for example, wood-boring beetles. They only create many problems, destroying wood both in nature and in the home of man. Because of these crumbs, a large residential building may gradually become unusable. We offer to get acquainted with their description and learn the most effective methods of struggle.

Appearance

The woodbug is a small insect that has wings and the ability to fly. The dimensions of the body are only a few millimeters, so often it can not even be noticed, but with its small size, such a bug brings great harm. The distinguishing features of an arthropod, a representative of the grinder family, are:

• Body color is black or dark brown.
• The average length of a flat body is up to 3 mm.

Thanks to the presence of wings, it flies well, during the summer months it is able to overcome impressive distances, which explains the prevalence of the pest throughout the globe (Europe and Asia, both Americas, hot Africa - these are the continents whose inhabitants faced attacks by tree destroyers).

The life expectancy of a pest under favorable conditions can be 15-20 years.

Lifestyle

Entomologists distinguish several varieties of wood-borers, including a house beetle, furniture, and comb. All of them bring undoubted harm to man, destroying the wooden elements of his home.

Unlike bark beetles, they prefer to live not in living trees, but in products from them - beams, boards, furniture, baseboards, door jambs and so on. In the photo of the woodworm beetle, you can see that this is a small harmless insect, which, however, does significant harm. Most of his long life is in wood, making moves in it. It is interesting that the larvae may not creep out for about 7 years, during which they will create more than 35 km of passages, which will have a detrimental effect on the state of the tree.

Diet

Wood-beetle beetles prefer to feast on wood, but to the number of their "favorite dishes" they can include boards, beams and other products made of spruce or other conifers. They eat soft layers, almost without affecting the core. If several larvae have settled in the product, they can destroy it to a state of trash in just one season. At the same time, a tree damaged by a fungus becomes much more attractive for wood-beetle beetles and their larvae than healthy.

Breeding

Grinders multiply very actively, crawling out of wood for this period. After fertilization, the female returns to the bowels of the tree and lays eggs in a mink specially created for this purpose, up to 6 cm in depth. About 80 larvae are born from eggs, which begin to feed, creating with their jaws an intricate grid of moves.

Life cycle

The period of greatest activity captures the warm season - from the beginning of spring to the last warm days of autumn, the insect begins to breed in the second half of May. The pest goes through the following stages of development: egg - larva - pupa - adult.

Often a very large number of eggs appears, up to 80 in the clutch, but many of them die. The stage of the larva is the longest and most unpleasant for humans, since insects begin to actively feed on the tree, rendering the products from it unusable, which can last about 7 years. Interestingly, the size of the larvae is about 5-6 mm, while the adults reach no more than 2-3 mm in length. Only after this the larva pupates, then becomes an adult, ready for breeding. The female will live about 25 days, but this will be enough for her to produce offspring.

Reasons for appearing in homes

Finding a neighborhood with a woodworm beetle in your home is a nuisance from which virtually no one is safe. This insect is happy to choose window openings, doors, floors, window sills as its home - that is, all those elements on which unscrupulous builders often try to save money, refusing to process the wood with special compounds. In addition, the use of old wood during the construction process can lead to the appearance of such insects. Perhaps the materials were not initially infected, but due to a violation of storage rules, the presence of boards or timber in rooms with high humidity, they were attacked by pests.

The following symptoms will help to identify the occurrence of a wood pest :

• The appearance of wood flour (dust) in the above places.
• An unpleasant creak emitted by insects that create their moves in designs.
• Small holes on the outside of the frames, window sills, other designs.

The greatest harm is caused by the larvae of the wood-beetle beetle, which use wood as food, destroying beams and boards, which in turn can lead to the death of the home. This is why pests need to be disposed of as quickly as possible.

Methods of struggle

If it was revealed that the grinders really attacked the dwelling, then it is necessary to start a war with them. Destruction of woodworm beetles is possible by several methods:

• Use of insecticides.
• Fumigation of the room with dry steam.
• Fumigation.
• Using the secrets of folk sages.

How to get rid of a woodworm beetle in the house in the most popular ways, is presented in the form of a table.

If wood pests are very common, then you can separate some elements (for example, frames or door jambs) and burn them, which will avoid further infection.

From the piggy bank of folk wisdom

We continue to consider the question of how to get rid of the woodworm beetle and its larvae. If the problem is small, the number of beetles is insignificant, then you can try to turn to simple and affordable folk methods, which, of course, are not as effective as the results of the chemical industry, but are more safe for health.

There are several proven recipes:

• Dilute sodium fluoride (250 g) in 10 liters of water, mix thoroughly. Using a paint brush, apply the resulting composition to the affected surface.
• Salt will also help get rid of the wood-beetle at home. For this, 5-6 tsp. salts are dissolved in a liter of water, after which the resulting solution is applied to infected surfaces.
• Using a paint brush, you can spread damaged wooden elements with linseed oil.
• Mix turpentine and kerosene in a 3: 1 ratio, grease structures damaged by wood-beetle bugs.

In villages, pest extermination used to be confined to Epiphany frosts - a wooden building was properly frozen for several days, often this was enough to get rid of the larvae. The disadvantage of this method is that during the “frost treatment” people and animals needed to find another home for themselves.

We examined the features of the appearance and lifestyle of the woodworm beetle. This insect, with its small size, can do great harm to humans, so the fight against it must be timely and merciless. Otherwise, the larvae can completely destroy a wooden structure in a few years - a garage, a bathhouse, even a residential building.