Woodworm and Termites

Woodworm and termites are different creatures, but they produce the same result: timber that looks sound from the outside and is hollow within. In both cases the damage is done not by the flying insect you notice but by the stage working inside the wood. That is why the problem is usually found late — when a floorboard gives underfoot, or a painted frame collapses under thumb pressure.

Woodworm: active or historic

With woodworm the damage is the work of the larva, which feeds inside the timber. The round holes you see on the surface are exit holes, made by the adult on its way out. A hole marks the end of a cycle, not the start of the damage.

The look of the holes tells you whether the infestation is still running:

• A fresh hole is pale, sharp-edged and clean, with fine, light-coloured frass collecting directly beneath it.
• An old hole is darkened, its edges dulled, and it is packed with dust; nothing new gathers below.

Where you cannot tell, wipe the surface clean beneath the holes and look again later. If fresh frass has appeared, the infestation is current.

Moisture is usually the cause

There is nearly always a moisture source behind woodworm: a leaking pipe, an unventilated cellar, a floor without a damp barrier, water tracking in from the roof. As the timber dries, conditions become less suitable for the pest. If the damp is left alone, the problem is likely to return whatever is applied to the wood, so a survey starts with where the water is coming from.

How to recognise termites

A termite colony is divided into castes. Workers are wingless, soft-bodied and light caramel in colour; they are the ones that consume the wood. Soldiers have larger amber or brownish heads with substantial mandibles. The reproductive swarmers are dark brown to brownish-black with brownish-grey wings.

Most people meet the swarmers first and take them for flying ants. An ant has a distinctly pinched waist and elbowed antennae; a termite’s body is much the same width along its whole length.

The most familiar sign is the mud tube — a hardened run that workers build from soil mixed with saliva. Tubes climb foundation walls, cellar piers and anywhere structural timber meets the ground.

What the damage looks like

Termite galleries follow the grain of the timber. The softer springwood is eaten and the harder summerwood left behind, leaving enclosed, roughly longitudinal cavities. Darkening or blistering of structural timber is a further sign. A painted surface can stay flat and convincing while most of the wood behind it has gone, so tapping a suspect joist and listening tells you more than looking at it.

How the treatment works

Termite work is not a shop-bought remedy job; the effective methods call for a licensed applicator. The main ones are soil-applied liquid termiticides placed by trenching and injection, non-repellent actives that the colony carries without avoiding them, and bait stations containing an insect growth regulator. Which of these suits depends on the ground, the type of foundation and where the activity is, so the job begins with a survey. Woodworm treatment is directed at the timber itself and only makes sense alongside fixing the damp. In both cases we use biocidal products licensed by the Turkish Ministry of Health.

What you can do

• Break any wood-to-soil contact and keep a clear gap of roughly 30 cm of smooth concrete, coarse sand or other inorganic material between soil and structural timber.
• Repair leaks, ventilate cellars and underfloor voids, and keep stacked timber and firewood off the soil against the wall.

If you find a mud tube, photograph it and note where it runs before clearing it away. Where the tube comes from decides where the treatment goes.