Woodworms

All the termites are gone. Yay! Carlos did a great job.

And now, introducing, the wood eating woodworms …

The first time Carlos came to deal with the termites, he noticed little piles of sawdust on the window sills and on the floor. Upon further inspection, he said that some of the wood that was used for the headers of the doors and windows was infected with the larva of woodworms. He could see the little round exit holes made by the woodworm beetles. When the larva mature (2-5 years), it turns into an insect with wings that lives for a short time but lays eggs in wood to start the cycle again. But while it is in the larva stage, it eats the wood it is in, forming tunnels throughout the furniture or beams. They are not a good insect to have around a house that has a lot of wood!

As part of Carlos’ warranty, he also deals with woodworms so he started the process of eliminating them. First the wood is sprayed. After a short time, you may notice a dying beetle exiting a tiny round hole. Carlos pulled each one out with a small sharp took like. Then he covered the hole with polyfilla. With some of the holes, he injected a poison into the wood with a hypodermic needle. Depending on how bad the infestation is, different strategies have to be used, but he starts with the least disruptive, for us, strategy.

After a couple or weeks, we started to notice the sawdust piles in various places again.

Carlos came immediately and went to Plan B. This involved taking all the wooden furniture outside for 3 days and spraying it thoroughly. Then the window frames, inside and outside, were sealed in a heavy duty plastic. Carlos put pellets between the plastic and added water. A gas was created that infiltrated the holes and killed any larva or beetles that were in the wood. The rooms were locked and had to sit like that for three days. He did 2 rooms at a time so that we would have somewhere to safe to sleep. Stinky stuff.

He came back three days later, took off the plastic and cleaned up. The furniture was put back into the bedrooms. Then he did the third bedroom. Same process. Our bedroom was not affected by the woodworms so we were okay. Three days later, he came again and opened up the room again. Looks like he got all of them now! What a process but our landlord should be happy with the results. Nothing eating the house from the inside out. The warrantee is for a year and Carlos said to call if ever any little sawdust piles are seen again. Great service!

While Carlos was removing the plastic, he found a scorpion caught on the blue tape that held the plastic up. We all wondered how it got there and were happy that he hadn’t got stung!

Have we ever learned a lot about insects on this trip! Thank heavens we are not bothered by little creepy crawlies. In our travels, there have always been strange and wonderful critters unique to the environment they live it.Read more