injection treatment for death watch beetle

[danjennings]

Does anyone have any experience or know of any companies that survery and treat by this method, Ive heard good things about it and it seems almost too simple a solution,!

I live in essex if thee are any companies locally?

Thanks

 

[Carol]

How do you catch them to give them an injection?


(Sorry for flippancy, couldn't resist!)

Seriously, the better solution is make them unwelcome. Get rid of all moisture in and near woodwork and they will go away.

 

[Alex]

I always thought, like Carol, that if you can get the house dry then Death Watch Beetle would leave because they only attack wet wood. Thankfully I don't have any experience of it but from the stuff that I have read about the subject, none of these so called chemical treatments work and therefore could be an expensive waste of money for you.

I look forward to reading other reply's to your question and to see if other forum users have had any experience of this type of threatment.

Good luck.

 

[danjennings]

Thanks guys - when i read my post I realised I should have phrased it differently - Doh !!

Ive read up on lots of post and info about humidity and keeping it dry but house has been empty for 9 months and suffered a flood from burst pipes which I dont know if was the cause or its an old problem. I believe that the issue is in roof timbers and i didnt fancy idea of roof caving in on me so was looking for a solution or at least a heads up by way of perhaps a survey. is there a simple test to see if its active does anyone know or is it a case ( again as ive read ) of testing with a something like a bradawl finding the damaged areas and treating?

 

[Alex]

I read a letter, on a problem page in a period property magazine once, from a woman who had noticed small insects flying around at night and wondered what they were. The answer in short was Death Watch Beetle, keep the wood dry and don't waste your money on chemical treatments because they don't work. Wether this is right or wrong, I don't know but I had a tendency to believe it as it was an independent source and had they had nothing to gain by telling her to save her money.

 

[Carol]

Our place (15th C timber framed, old oak roof) had been empty 18 months when we moved in (11 years ago) and our first spring was quite traumatic, notwithstanding the excellent advice we had been given about our active DWB. From twilight to dawn, somewhere in the house you could heard the ominous tick-tock! But since then, the place dried out, our builder checked and re-checked the roof and valleys and for the last four years we have not heard a tick.
Hope this works for you.

 

[JoceAndChris]

When we moved here last summer we were advised to have a chemical treatment. In fact, one mortgage company said if we didn't they wouldn't lend us the cash! (That one fell through anyway.)

The place is riddled with holes, I think they're rather nice. I've been everywhere looking for signs of live infestation (insects, fresh holes, little bits of wood dust) and so far haven't found any. I'm so pleased we weren't forced into that spurious treatment.

I think it's worth maintaining vigilance though, especially as we're always bringing in wormy heaps of wood from outside to burn.

As others have said, warm and cosy is what they hate.

Are you able to give the roof timbers a close inspection?

 

[danjennings]

Hi Guys
Thanks for your comforting advice, dry seems to be the answer eh? I know the roofs fine so no issues there but I am getting my builder to inspect and will continue to do so at regualr periods, not sure thought if thatll be enough and how to keep a roofspace dry? Ill listen out for ticking , i knew about that , but it not the kind of thing that you notice when viewing an house, especailly one thats been empty for sometime - is it just spring ( mating I guess ) that thell click if there around ?

 

[Flyfisher]

Not an expert either, but from what I've read the answer is a sound roof (which you seem to already have) and plenty of ventilation in the roof space to let the timbers dry out and then help keep them dry.

We have loads of holey timbers but they seem to be drying out nicely now that the roof no longer leaks.

I've also read that sticking tissue paper over affected beams will reveal their presence in the springtime as they emerge, which might or might not help your state of mind. Fine wood dust below the beams is another tell-tale sign.

The 'mortgage condition' problem is not uncommon (same with damp proofing). Again from what I've read, a 'true' expert in old houses can often sway the mortgage company. If your house is listed then your Conservation Officer might be able to help in this respect.

Good luck.

 

[Penners]

When we moved here last summer we were advised to have a chemical treatment.

Your medical problems have no place on this property forum.

 

[Matt Green]

If the issue is in the roof the most likely points of damage from deathwatch beetle are the bearings where the roofing timbers are embedded within masonry. Purlin ends, joist ends, rafter feet, truss bearings etc.

Water would be retained by the masonry and the bearings can't dry quickly. Damage is most likely at the eaves where water backs up over blocked gutters, valleys or hoppers. The areas most likely to be subject to active attack are equally the least accessible to treat. Your money is better spent on good maintenance to encourage drying.

Matt

 

[JoceAndChris]

When we moved here last summer we were advised to have a chemical treatment.

Your medical problems have no place on this property forum.

:lol: I fear there is no chemical treatment that would do the trick...

 

[danjennings]

Thanks once again Matt great advice ill get started right away.

 

[Aeroguide]

Hi...
Three years ago I had all the woodwork treated in my house (approx. 460yr old cob and thatch property) There was evidence of Death Watch Beetle picked up by a surveyor when I bought the property ten years ago. I was not overly concerned as the wood work was covered by a 30yr treatment policy provided by Rentokil. This policy had 8yrs to run at time of buying the house.
About 4yrs ago I started to hear the tapping noises you get from the beetle and decided to contact Rentokil with an aim to claim on the policy, perhaps for re treatment? It had been quite sometime since the property had been treated.
At the cost of £100.00 a guy came and took samples of wood from various beams within the loft/house. Some 4 weeks later Rentokil wrote saying I did not have a problem (quote:"there is no evidence"). Other than carrying out a long and drawn out legal claim, according to solicitors, the policy was not worth the paper it was written on.
A year later I contacted a local contractor who carried out wood treatment, who incidentally used to contract for Rentokil. He told me that all our woodwork had probably been spray treated which is not ideal. Apparently, the best treatment method is to hand paint all the woodwork with the chemical, which is absorbed to a depth of approximately 1/4" depending on the density of the wood. As the beetle emerge, usually in late spring they come into contact with the chemical which in turn kills them.

At the cost of £850.00 I had the whole place re treated. The following spring I heard the tapping from the beetle, and later that summer started to find dead beetles on the window sills (I have oak lintels over the internal windows). Since that spring/summer to date (yrs) I have not heard or seen Death Watch Beetle. So the treatment does work but not by spraying or injecting.

Incidentally, one of the ways Death Watch Beetle get into houses is by bringing logs into the house and leaving them by the fire. Should always put logs straight on to the fire.

Anyway here is a link to the company that now holds my treatment insurance and their approved contractors:

http://www.tritonconservationsystems.com/services/dampprooftimbertreatments.php

If the policy is any good only time will tell, hopefully I will not have to make a claim. I do know the treatment does work when applied correctly.

 

[MdB]

Hi Aeroguide, welcome to the forum.

I'm not an expert on bugs but I would be checking my beams for damp if I were you. DWB will only eat wood that is rotting due to high moisture levels I believe and yes the places which will be damp will be the places you can't get to.

 

[danjennings]

Hi Aero glide - thanks for that Ill get in touch with them re a survey.

 

[Aeroguide]

Hi Aeroguide, welcome to the forum.

I'm not an expert on bugs but I would be checking my beams for damp if I were you. DWB will only eat wood that is rotting due to high moisture levels I believe and yes the places which will be damp will be the places you can't get to.

The areas of woodwork where the Beetle emerged in my property were not damp. I've not seen or heard anything now for 3 years.

 

[biffvernon]

Apparently, the best treatment method is to hand paint all the woodwork with the chemical, which is absorbed to a depth of approximately 1/4" depending on the density of the wood. As the beetle emerge, usually in late spring they come into contact with the chemical which in turn kills them.

At the cost of £850.00 I had the whole place re treated. The following spring I heard the tapping from the beetle, and later that summer started to find dead beetles on the window sills (I have oak lintels over the internal windows). Since that spring/summer to date (yrs) I have not heard or seen Death Watch Beetle. So the treatment does work but not by spraying or injecting.

Well, let's just think this through carefully. The poisonous chemical only goes in 1/4" so any DWB grubs deeper can munch away at will until it's time to emerge. The emerging adult is not interested in feeding, just cutting it's way out of the wood, so will not actually be injesting that poisonous last 1/4". The tapping sounds are not a distress call, quite the opposite. Finding dead beetles on the window sill is poor evidence of the efficacy of the treatment. It may just indicate that they just finished doing what comes naturally to beetles and lived out their naturally very short, as imago, lifespan.

The poison may, or may not, have helped rid your timber of infestation.

(Capricorn beetles. Now that will be a worrisome adjunct to global warming.)

 

[Aeroguide]

Well, let's just think this through carefully. The poisonous chemical only goes in 1/4" so any DWB grubs deeper can munch away at will until it's time to emerge. The emerging adult is not interested in feeding, just cutting it's way out of the wood, so will not actually be injesting that poisonous last 1/4". The tapping sounds are not a distress call, quite the opposite. Finding dead beetles on the window sill is poor evidence of the efficacy of the treatment. It may just indicate that they just finished doing what comes naturally to beetles and lived out their naturally very short, as imago, lifespan.

The poison may, or may not, have helped rid your timber of infestation.

(Capricorn beetles. Now that will be a worrisome adjunct to global warming.)

Oh dear oh dear... I did not mention anything about "distress calls". For your information, here's a link:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O8-deathwatchbeetle.html

All I was doing was relating my experiences on this forum. I do not wish to get into an argument about bugs. But if I am wrong I bow to your obvious superior Knowledge of my property and my experiences....I always wondered if there was some strange unknown species of animal/insect crawling about in some sort of dark corner within my house thats been taken in hook-line-and-sinker by the global warming fiasco

 

[Matt Green]

Apparently, the best treatment method is to hand paint all the woodwork with the chemical,

Not all the wood is susceptible to attack, so why the blanket treatment? I would suggest that it's only 'best' if you make money selling treatment and applying it.

Brush treating sapwood or damp heartwood is a good plan, it uses less insecticide and penetrates deeper into the timber, but you miss the point: Deathwatch don't decide to attack timber regardless of location or condition, they need good environmental conditions it which to complete their lifecycle or they will not survive. The female beetle woudl not lay eggs in wood that cannot not support larvae and there is no egg hatch in deathwtach beetle below a relative humidity of less than 23%. The timber has to have been damp at the time of infestation- given the larvae stage can last over 8 years, it might have been a leak or or previous poor environmental conditions that caused the dampness that whilst now not evident, must* have been there. Dry timber does not spontaineously errupt in Deathwatch beetle infestations: there would be little oak left if that were the case.

You have made the connection that treatment = eradication which is not unreasonable, but if you had two identical cottages that had experienced the same conditions for the same amount of time and both got Deathwatch at the same time, you might well have found that if one house was treated as you did and the other not treated at all, both would now be Deathwatch free. The adults emmerge from the now dry timbers, do not re-infest and fly off. Science in action and £850 saved.

You had treatment and you no longer have deathwatch. That doesn't mean the treatment worked, you just have a single non-replicable annecodote. And whilst you are free to pass that on in a public forum, please be aware that your experiences do not prove cause and effect.

Welcome to the forum.


Matt

*demonstrably. See:
Hickin, N. (1963) The Insect Factor in Wood Decay, Rentokil Library
Ridout, B. (2000) Timber decay in building: A conservation Approach to Treatment, SPON Press.
Fisher, R.C. (1938) Studies of the Biology of Deathwatch Beetle Xestobium rufovillosum de Geer II. Ann. App. Biol. 27: 545.