Holes in wooden furniture - anything to worry about?

[vanhelgan]

I'd really appreciate any advice regarding a piece of furniture we have just bought. It's a solid pine chest of drawers, handmade but modern, but there are quite a lot of holes in it. Most surfaces are affected to a degree (including the bottom of drawers etc). The holes measure 1-3+mm in diameter and some have a greyish halo around them. They are not really clustered together but some are almost in lines with typically 10cm between them. At first look they look like accidental damage to the wood, especially as it's not a really old piece, not made of hardwood etc, but am feeling a little paranoid about bringing pests into the house! The chest has been kept in a 16C wood framed building. Here are some pics, very many thanks in advance for any help:

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[FamilyWiggs]

Well, I'm certainly not an expert, but those look like the result of mechanical damage to me rather than insects.

 

[Schoolmarm]

I need a coin photographed next to them before I hazard a guess. :lol:

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

Almost certainly not insect made. Looks like holes from panel pins or similar. Is this the back panel? What is on the other side? If the holes go all the way through then they are nothing to worry about. The discolouration in the holes is likely to be from corrosion of pins etc.
Flight holes of wood boring insects tend to be perfectly clean and circular - these are not.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Ha - a real expert. And he agrees with me!

My day is complete!

 

[vanhelgan]

Phew - that's what they looked like to us too but most reassuring to get agreement from those more knowledgeable!

Many thanks

 

[Penners]

I agree with everything that's been said, but if you want additional reassurance, rub some wax into the holes, then monitor them from time-to-time.

If they were the result of infestation, then the chances are that some sort of creepy-crawly would at some point try and pop out for a breath of fresh air, and would disturb the wax.

 

[philmac1944]

Look a bit like the ends of screw holes left after removing a batten. In the middle picture, the left hand hole even has the imprint
of a X which may have been a marker for a pilot hole. The reaction of the metal screw with the wood could cause the greyness.
Agree with the suggestion to fill them with wax; functional as well as aesthetic.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

:shock: :shock:

 

[Feltwell]

The first picture looks exactly to me like the marks left from corrosion of steel pins, as Andrew said. I took some nails out of some old softwood recently and then planed it smooth to use it for a job - the marks left from where the nails used to be looked exactly the same as your first picture.

I'm wondering if your furniture was made using reclaimed timber.

 

[Flyfisher]

Regarding the concern of the OP of bringing such pests into the house when buying new (old) furniture, is this really such a big risk?

I can imagine it's a good idea to avoid such things if possible but, in practice, won't such beetles find any susceptible wood in any case? When they hatch and fly off, how long can they live and travel before having to lay new eggs? Do they generally prefer to find outside wood (fallen trees etc) to colonise and it's mainly our own fault for introducing them inside our houses?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Matt has always said it's all to do with the levels of moisture in our houses.

We finish off the drying process of all our wood for the fires inside and have a complicated wood rotation system (it goes from the porch, to next to the Rayburn, to its final destination, and consequently burns really well) - at any given point there are around 10 large baskets of wood in the cottage and a ceiling high stack of wood in the porch. Some of this has had woodworm - but as yet we've had no problems of transferrence at all. I do keep checking all over, the cottage was bady infested with woodworm 20 years ago but not heated so much in those days.

 

[Matt Green]

Regarding the concern of the OP of bringing such pests into the house when buying new (old) furniture, is this really such a big risk?

I can imagine it's a good idea to avoid such things if possible but, in practice, won't such beetles find any susceptible wood in any case? When they hatch and fly off, how long can they live and travel before having to lay new eggs? Do they generally prefer to find outside wood (fallen trees etc) to colonise and it's mainly our own fault for introducing them inside our houses?

When posts like this occur, someone should shine a silhouette of a beetle on low cloud....

Adult furniture beetle live for around 20-30 days and mate just after emmergence. Females lay their eggs of timber with a raised moisture content. Laying them on dry timber woudln't result in them fairing well. How she finds the timber to lay them on is open for debate, but there have been a few experiments that show that Anoibium fly towards aggregation pheromones and males will certainly swarm around females. Whether females respond to the same pheromones and lay eggs where there are already a lot of females present, I don't know.

Wood-borers (generally )show a positive attraction to generic wood-breakdown products (alpha-pinine, turpenes etc) and wood breaking-down in houses would smell a lot like a tree in a still wood. The lack of air movement would stabilise odor plumes quite well.

But, yes: don't give them anywhere to lay eggs and there should be problem. Let them fly away.

(mostly pinched from The Insect Factor in Wood Decay by N. Hickin. Old but still good)

 

[Penners]

When posts like this occur, someone should shine a silhouette of a beetle on low cloud....

...and they could then expect immediate help from...

......Mattman!

 

[Schoolmarm]

I hope he hasn't got a tight shiny green suit.

 

[yamin]

Oh help, woo comes into our house in all states of damp - a result of a hungry log burner and a not very organised wood system, unlike Joce (Very impressive!) - all seasoned but not very dry - are we asking for trouble with woodworm? not seen any as yet....

 

[yamin]

woo comes into our house

Woo? Woo? Keys drop off my keyboard on a daily basis, today its a dodgy 'd' key! :x

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:

Och, what's a "d" amongst friends!

 

[FamilyWiggs]

:lol:

Och, what's a "d" amongst friends!

Far better than losing your "r" - which does mean something amongst fiends!

Sorry! :roll:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Good God Robin, if this is what a holiday does to you you'd better get back to work at once!