Then the entire house kit may be fumigated, loaded onto trucks and delivered to the construction site where logs may sit again before the homeowner assembles the house. If a log house kit produced during the fall is delivered to the building site, but assembly not made until spring or summer, any eggs laid in the cracks and crevices of the logs will hatch in only about nine days with the first stage larvae immediately penetrating the wood. Larvae may have gone below the depth of preservative treatment before being dipped. Adult emergence holes are discovered easily. Reinfestation of log houses seems greater than conventional houses because of more exposed wood and the shorter feeding time of larvae.
Homeowners often ask when and where the logs became infested.
However, it is impossible to determine precisely. One needs to know when the log house was manufactured, when it was delivered, when it was assembled, and when larvae were first heard feeding in the wood. To suspect that the infestation originated at the manufacturing site, all or part of the log house kit needed to be produced during the flight period of the female beetles. The larval feeding sounds and size of larvae removed from wood are helpful clues. Infestations may occur at the construction site when the kit remains unassembled.