page_title: Woodboring beetle
section_title: Invasion and control
hierarchical_section_title: Woodboring beetle / Invasion and control
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Frische Bruchstelle eines vom Holzwurm zerfressenen Besenstiels English: Fresh fragment of a broomstick eroded by woodboring beetles
context_page_description: The term woodboring beetle encompasses many species and families of beetles whose larval or adult forms eat and destroy wood. In the woodworking industry, larval stages of some are sometimes referred to as woodworms. The three most speciose families of woodboring beetles are longhorn beetles, bark beetles and weevils, and metallic flat-headed borers.
context_section_description: Woodboring beetles are commonly detected a few years after new construction. The lumber supply may have contained wood infected with beetle eggs or larvae, and since beetle life cycles can be one or more years, several years may pass before the presence of beetles becomes noticeable. In many cases, the beetles will be of a type that only attacks living wood, and thus incapable of "infesting" any other pieces of wood, or doing any further damage. 
  Genuine infestations are far more likely in areas with high humidity, such as poorly ventilated crawl spaces. Housing with central heating/air-conditioning tends to cut the humidity of wood in the living areas to less than half of natural humidity, thus strongly reducing the likelihood of an infestation. Some species will infest furniture.
  Some beetles invade wood used in construction and furniture making; others limit their activity to forests or roots of living trees.  The following lists some of those beetles that are house pests.
  Ambrosia beetle
  Common furniture beetle
  Deathwatch beetle
  Flat-headed wood-borer
  Powderpost beetle (Ptinidae, Bostrichidae)
  Old-house borer
caption: Fragment of a broomstick affected by woodworm
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