These wood destroying beetles can do significant damage to log homes, furniture, wood floors and structural timbers in your home. Most of the life cycle is spent in the grub or larvae stage eating wood.
Damage is done by the larvae as they create narrow, meandering tunnels in wood as they feed .
This stage can last between 1-10 years, depending upon a number of factors including species of beetle, type of wood infested, age of wood, moisture content of wood and air temperature. People do not realize that the wood is infested until the adult beetles emerge from within the wood. The exit holes are very small, about the size of a pin head. The eggs hatch into tiny larvae which bore into the wood, emerging as adults 1-10 years later. Infestations develop slowly, but wood can be reinfested year after year.