Bush TV145U with a little problem.

Hi Neil is it live? are the worm present or is it just the flight holes?

I've had this problem in the past on very old clocks, happy to say not on any TV's. I normally inject all holes with worm killer, it's funny to see it shoot out somewhere else. I then then spray killer all over the cabinet and seal in a black bin liner leaving a couple of months. I've not had any problem with them coming back.

Chris

The wormkiller is 100% effective if completely applied to ALL the wood. Holes are ones that have left. It's the eggs and ones still inside is the issue. Scrub the wood with the stuff.

As probably sinking case inside your home heating fuel tank for a week. They can't breath kerosene. Not sure how good it is for the eggs.

Well ive given the set a good dose of the stuff. and hopefully its killed the b******s. cheers neil.

The beetles eat their way out and fly off in April so you'll know then if you have got rid or not.

- Joe

Hello all. is there a chance that they might decide to leave now if they are still inside the cabinet?. or will there be a mass exit in april. cheers neil.

My understanding is that April is the time that the grubs turn into beetles and make their exit to find a place to lay their eggs. I can't therefore see how they could come out before that.

As Mike says, how effective chemicals are on un-hatched eggs is questionable.

Another effective treatment is freezing so you may be able to leave the cabinet outside for a few nights if we get hard frosts.

At least until the flight season they won't spread to anything else.

- Joe

Common furniture beetle, Anobium Punctatum, has a 5 year life cycle, but the adult only lives for a few weeks and cuts the hole you see in order to exit and find a mate. Eggs are laid onto the timber surface or in old holes. The baby grubs bore back in and the cycle repeats.

Ireland & UK have
Common Furniture Beetle - aka "woodworm" - lots of 1mm to 2mm flight holes. Very small holes are fresh hatched grub boring in.
Death Watch Beetle - This insect can be a structural hazard to your building, but really only likes mature hardwood that is already under fungal attack due to being damp.
Wood Boring Weevil - Likes Damp (rarer)
House Longhorn Beetle -Rarer.

Borax powder dissolved to 15% strength seems to be a common preventive treatment.
http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/guides/woo ... ol-p1.html

A safe but effective treatment is borax, a compound of boron also known as sodium borate. This is available as a crystalline powder, which is dissolved as a 15% solution in water and applied to the affected timber. There are no health hazards* associated with this treatment, and borax will inhibit fungal growth as well as killing woodworm.

(* Unless you are pregnant and eat about 1/2 cup of the powder in one go. Unlikely. Even then the baby might be just slightly reduced in weight)

Paraffin, freezing (put cabinet in chest freezer) or less than 10% moisture in wood will kill existing infestation.

http://www.rentokil.co.uk/residential-c ... index.html
http://www.rentokil.co.uk/residential-c ... index.html

"drying out" the cabinet will kill it

Test the humidity of your woodwork using a timber moisture meter. These cost about £50 but you can hire one from a hardware store. Insert the probe and you'll get an instant moisture content reading. A moisture content of 20% would be a cause for concern. Woodworm prefers timber with moisture content over 18 %, although it can tolerate moisture contents as low as 12 % for short periods. At lower moisture levels, however, the rate of colonisation tends to be low and infestation will die out with prolonged periods of reduced moisture levels. (Ref: Helen Sellars/Sophie Hale, Forest Research, Midlothian). You can assume that a reading of 11% puts you at very low risk of a woodworm infestation.

via http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/guides/woo ... ntrol.html

Wikipedia article looks sensible http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anobium_punctatum

This very good site looks at woodworm from perspective of musical Instruments, so close to our needs:
http://www.rocheviolins.com/html/woodworm.html

Well i have now stripped the cabinet out and cleaned it . to say it was filthy was putting it mildly,it was disgusting what with the dead woodlice,spiders,live ones too, and cobwebs and damp and dust and grease it was a real put off of a job.but its all clean now apart from the you know who. cheers neil.

Another good article on Woodworm.

http://www.buildingconservation.com/art ... odworm.htm

Background http://www.buildingconservation.com/art ... cation.htm

Fresh "sawdust" (Frass) after freezing doesn't mean the grubs are not dead, it can be old Frass loosened. The "Sawdust" or frass really only comes out of EMPTY flight holes, not places with worm as ingress is tiny and the Frass is the digested wood passed through the grub.

Hot or very Dry:
If it's thin wood then boiling water or microwave will kill them as raising the wood above 50°C (in centre) is fatal to eggs and grubs (larvae).

Freezing

In order to kill them it is therefore necessary to subject objects as quickly as possible to a ‘deep freeze’ temperature lower than -20°C. Repeated cycles of freezing and thawing are also more likely to kill any remaining live larvae within timbers.

A good chest freezer is -21°C. Ordinary "hard frost" will not kill them.

Varnish the the bare wood with polyurethane after treatment is complete and holes filled with a matching colour of polyester filler or Plastic wood as the Beetle needs bare wood, cracks or old holes to lay the eggs. The eggs are very small, but cluster is visible.

My main worry with the microwave idea was that there may be hidden nails or screws in the woodwork. I was once given a microwave oven in which the owner had replaced a broken glass turntable with an old bread board, carved on the underside to take the drive thingy. The oven worked but things took ages to cook as the wood absorbed most of the energy.

Hi.
I think Fido thought about microwaving them on another thread or even another forum. I wonder if the microwave energy would kill them long before the wood got hot?

It's the moisture in the wood heating that kills them. I think it's the least practical method as most cases are either too large or have metal bits.

Ive still not finished this set . and im wondering if someone could give me an idea as to the cost of getting it sorted professionally,or maybe i could do a deal with some other sets to pay for the work etc. as i think it would be a shame if it were to just be scrapped and ive not seen another one ever. cheers,neil.