Powder Post Beetles: The Forgotten Wood-Destroying Pest

October 27, 2016

In: Residential Pest Control

A huge threat to the structure of your home and your hard earned bank account are wood-destroying pests. These insects are small, powerful, and unfortunately, can cause enough damage to your home to weaken its structural integrity. As a homeowner you are probably aware of the severe damages that common wood destroying insects like termites and carpenter ants can cause, but what about the damages that powder post beetles cause? Most people have never heard of powder post beetles, let alone know that they are only second to termites in the amount of damage that they can cause to a structure. We want to give you the 411 on powder post beetles including signs of their presence and what to do if you find that these sneaky pests have invaded your home.

Let’s start with a little background about powder post beetles and what type of damages that they can cause to your home. Powder post beetle adults are reddish-brown in color and have an elongated flattened body; they are winged and can fly. After mating the females lay their eggs inside of the cracks and crevices of untreated wood, preferring hardwoods. These tricky invaders can also be found in treated wood if they invaded the wood before it was stained or painted.

After hatching from their eggs the c-shaped, cream colored larvae begin feeding on the inside of the wooden structure they were laid in; after molting several times over several months, they pupate and emerge from the wood as an adult-ready to take on the world, or at least the wood found in your home. The newly emerged adults mate, and then the females lay their eggs back into the same piece of wood that they just emerged from, increasing the extent of their damage with each new generation. Powder post beetles typically invade things like structural beams, floors, antique furniture, and other wooden objects.

Damages from powder post beetles can range from mild to very severe. Powder post beetles leave behind a couple of signs that they have invaded wood that is located within your home. If powder post beetles are in your home you may find piles of fine dusty material known as frass on the floor, frass is the “stuff” that is left behind that the larvae kick out as they tunnel through and feed on the wood. Powder post beetles will also leave small round holes in the exterior of the wood that they are infesting; these holes are where the adults emerge from after pupation.

So as you may have guessed now, powder post beetles are no joke, and are definitely a force to be reckoned with, and like with any wood destroying insect fast action needs to be taken! Wood destroying insects require professional control, DIY methods are not effective and will just prolong the infestation and allow more damage to be done to your home.

At American Pest Solutions our professionals are experienced with handling powder post beetle infestations, and can quickly eliminate them from your home. We can then prevent a re-infestation through our Pest Guard Home Pest Control plan, this plan provides routine year-round pest control services to make sure that your home never becomes a food source for powder post beetle again!

Don’t let powder post beetle feed on your home for another day, contact the powder post beetle control experts at American Pest Solutions!