Wood insects identification and treatment: Termites, Dry wood Ants, Soil Ants, Marine Borers, Carpenter ants, Wood-boring beetles are the leading insects responsible for damaging and destroying wood. In this article, we’ll know how to identify and how to get rid of them.
Table of Contents
Wood insects identification and treatment
We’ll discuss why termites, dry wood ants, soil Ants, marine borers, carpenter ants, wood-boring beetles attack wood and how to prevent them.
1. Termites:
Termites exist almost everywhere in the world. It is the most wood damaging and destroying insects. Based on termite habitat, they can be divided into two groups as underground and aboveground. Underground termites live in the soil but survive by eating the wood above the soil, especially wood cellulose. They collect moisture and water from the soil. They move by making soil tunnels between the soil and the wood inside and collect food from the wood placed above the soil. You can see the colony of these termites after a while if the wood is placed on the ground.
Aboveground termites live in colonies in the woods and do not feel the need for water supply from outside, making it difficult to locate them easily. Termites act as severely damaging the wood. Termites grow wing once a year. Then the two male and female termites mate and fly elsewhere and begin their reproduction to make a colony.
Treatment: The primary way to protect the wood from termites is treatment and use it. Some possibles treatment is given below.
- Don’t keep wood in contact with the ground.
- Don’t allow moisture to accumulate near the wood.
- Reduce moisture and humidity in the wood.
- Never store debris near the wood or against foundations.
- Apply termite-resistant polish on the wood.
- Spray a borax solution on the wood.
- Keep the wood in strong sunlight continuously for two or three days.
- Use borate on the wood before priming or painting.
Termites and ants identification:
2. Ants:
There are hundreds of species of ants found in the world. The leading food of ants is cellulose. They eat all the cells that carry cellulose. There are usually two types of ants. E.g.
- Ants that are living in dry wood.
- Ants that are living on the ground.
Dry wood ants: These ants have no contact with the soil. It lives in dry wood and eats wood to make a net. Dry wood ants wreck the wood.
Soil ants: These ants live in the soil in whole or in part. If the wood is in contact with the soil, they have the advantage of attacking, and if the wood is above the ground, they make a tunnel-like path through the ground like termites and attack the wood. They cause severe damage to the wood. At a temperature of 2600 to 3000, this ant is active and destroys wood. They live in groups.
3. Marine borers:
The living enemy of wood is the sea salt insects. This type of insect usually enters the wood by making small holes in the space between the wood water line and the mud line, usually used in saline water. There are mainly two types of salt insects. E.g.
- Mollusks
- Crustacean
Marine borers also attack submerged parts of a wooden ship. During World War II, sailors had to deal with saltwater insects rather than with opposing teams. Marine borers can quickly destroy wooden vessels.
Treatment: The two most common treatment to protect the wood from marine borer are barrier wrapping (light borer activity), and encasement or splicing (moderate to heavy borer activity).
4. Carpenter ants:
Carpenter ant is a less harmful insect of wood. Because they take shelter in wood but do not take wood as food, they enter through holes of living trees, especially forest trees, as carpenter ants. You can identify their presence after seeing the wood powder accumulated in the hole made by the carpenter ants. They are usually like softwood infected with fungus and make holes in the wood.
How to get rid of carpenter ants: Treatment is the primary way to prevent the wood from carpenter ants before using the wood. You can repel the carpenter ants by smoking or heating the wood. If insects enter the house through a hole in the wood used in the house, then you can use hot water, smoking, toxic solution in the hole.
Wood-boring beetles: Living plants naturally have a resistant ability. Fungi and insects cannot usually attack living plants due to their resistance ability. Even if attacked, they cannot spread deeper. The beetle attacks the woods of the tropical country Within 24 hours after the tree is cut down. First, the beetles take shelter under the bark and then the wood cells. They enter the cavity through a needle size hole and hide in the wood.
They are often called pinhole borers because they make tunnels in the wood by piercing like a needle. Again, many people know it as Ambrosia beetles.
The holes made by the beetle can range from 1.5 mm to 6 mm in diameter. The green color is often seen in the holes, and these green colors are a type of fungus. Beetles carry such fungus to enter the woods and break down the wood cellulose into the beetle’s stomach. Beetle wastes about 60% of wood if the wood is kept carelessly. The life history of the beetle can be divided into four stages. E.g.,
- The beetle can lay eggs in wood, on top of the wood, in holes of wood, and cracks.
- The larvae hatch from beetle eggs, and many larvae die in small holes in the wood.
- The dormancy of the larvae continues.
- After overcoming the dormant state, it becomes a wholly grown beetle.
The duration of each of these four steps is significant to kill the beetle of the wood with a toxic solution or other means. When you see small holes in the wood, you understand that the beetle has attacked the wood. After the beetles destroy the wood, their wings grow, and they fly elsewhere, creating new colonies and entering the wood cells through the holes before the beetles can eat the desired food.
Wood-boring beetles identification:
