Jasper and North Georgia, The Powder Post Beetles Are Coming!!

Hello again and as the faith Pest Control podcast I’m your host Mike Stewart. I’m here with pest expert Fred Talley. And we’ve got a great subject today. It’s the Beatles one of my favorites. Now it’s not the Beatles, not the music group, The Beatles, it’s the powder post beetles. So I don’t know what in the world that is Fred. But if that’s a problem you solve, tell us all about it.
Alright, my key a, the cartlett there’s really three kind of related families and the was powderpost beetles that the common name for them together is powderpost beetles. And it’s appropriate because the larvae of these beetles tunnel into wood timbers and they make a very fine powder like substance in their tunnelling adventures and it’s probably about the consistency of talcum powder or flour is extremely fun. Now the adults actually do very little of the damage to the wood. Their primary function in is basically reproduction. of, of the many different kinds of insects that attack wood powderpost beetles come in second only to termites and the amount of destructive, destructive and destructiveness that they actually produce. They cause me tons of dollars in damage every year in the United States that they invest in reinvest dry, seasoned wood was interior the wood being completely full of holes or galleries. In fact, with wood dust or as we an industry call it frass. pinhole openings perforate the surface of the infested wood the size of the holes varies depending on the family and species involved. But basically, you have elected powderpost beetle Abbas stricted in a bid hardwoods and softwoods are both attacked. Although the lichten powderpost beetle is specific to hardwoods. The hardwood varieties generally include ash, oak, walnut and pecan. And the soft Woods generally include pine fir and a few Maple varieties. powderpost beetles will infest flooring studs, rafters ceiling joist floor joist. Any wooden part of the structure can be infested with powderpost beetles. crates that some product is delivered to a new home. The pallet that’s in that used to haul something to a new home can have them the paneling in an old house, the furniture, tool handles, gun stocks, anything made out of wood. in faith infested, I’ll get this right in a minute infestations are actually often built into a structure as a result of unknowingly using lumber that’s already infested. Sometimes beetles are brought into homes in infested firewood. beetles that attack soft Woods will often can and will often fly into crawl spaces beneath buildings and they’ll lay their eggs on the exposed wood they’re the first evidence seven instead infestation is usually piles of very fun sawdust or frass as we call it beneath the wood as well as the small holes in the wood surface. At the point of finding the frass the infestation has been present for months, sometimes years depending on the species of wood and the environmental conditions predominantly temperature and humidity. In hidden areas such as crawl spaces. We call them hidden they’re not hidden but you don’t go down there very frequently like you just walk through your house. So very serious damage can be done by an infestation before it’s actually even discovered. Adult the liquid powderpost beetles on to infest the hardwoods. They lay their eggs in the surface pores of the wood there and just as an FYI, for those that have any curiosity About powderpost beetles though do go through a complete metamorphosis meaning they have an egg a larvae or pupae and then on the adult the liquid eggs are kind of long and cylindrical. So they need a
actually a larger place in which to lay their eggs. When when the egg hatches, the larvae will bore into the wood just as soon as they hatch. Now the larvae will live inside that piece of wood, creating galleries or tunnels if you will, as they eat the wood. When they are nearly fully grown. When the larva is nearly fully grown and they’re ready for the pupil stage they will bore near to the surface of the wood and then and then they will pupate. The adult bore out through the surface soon after the the pupating phase in in that’s when you will see the fine powdery wood stout of the wood. This one they’re emerging. The adult activity is greatest in in our area in early spring, and they remain pretty active throughout the summer seasons spring and summer. They’re primarily inactive during the day, they’ll hide in cracks and crevices or holes in the wood. It’s at night is when their activity is really prominent when they lay their eggs. So when you can see a pattern here when they lay their eggs eggs hatch, the larvae bore into the wood and they complete it starts the cycle back over again. under ideal conditions, lifted powderpost beetles can complete a life cycle in in in one year. If the temperature the woods starts content in the moisture conditions are all prime. It can happen in a year however they use for usually require more than a year to complete that cycle. As you know something is not all conditions are prime at the same time generally. And most of the times it’s due to the dryness of the wood. In an unoccupied or poorly heated building they will off they can and will often reinvest for many generations. The link to damage is characterized by the presence of the flower like frass fallen out of the holes. Liquids have the I guess you’d call it the smoothest frass the finest frass. Other the other two beetles in the that are considered powderpost beetles actually have a more of a coarse frass. The Ana bee is is another one of the primary ones that will invest in houses they lay their eggs in the cracks and crevices of season the wood they follow much the same pattern is the liquid metal. As soon as eggs hatches and larvae burrows into the wood where they live. And they’ll Tunnel Tunnel for a year or more when mature. burrow towards the surface of the wood where they’ll pupate, and after changing from poupee to an adult they bored of the surface of the wood and escape. Now Anna beards infest all types of seasons with both hardwoods and softwoods. All they’re normally a larger problem in the sapwood of soft Woods as the as a result of that infestations of Anna beads are more common in crawl spaces and basements. Because most framing lumber is made out of pine cabinets freestanding furniture other word works such as trim can also be infested but if you don’t, don’t typically find them in the attics. The Anna beard infestation can be characterized by the small round holes on the surface of the wood just like the lectins they have they do have a fine to medium coarse I guess you call it powder coming from the the holes and their frass is characterized by the kind of the bun shaped pellets with the frass. And actually those are fecal pellets.
The antibiotic life cycle can take more than one year depending on the environmental conditions again, the adults for the anNabi is emerging greatest numbers here from general April May June and July and will reinvest it for moisture content is high enough. So in generally in crawl spaces reinfestation occurs most frequently if the moisture content is too high because of they have they have poor ventilation or their wood members that are you know absorb the humidity. attics and wall voids are rare very rarely infested with Anna beads because you know we are we live in controlled environments in our home anymore there the ventilation temperature control, you know removes unnecessary moisture. So the problem the house does not have typically have a problem with with extra moisture but they enhance central heating and cooling and generally all the windows and doors are closed 24 seven, pretty much that so but powderpost beetles in the last last two years for me anyway had become a huge issue. If you hire us to control your your powderpost beetle problem, at the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% happy with the service we’ve provided to you. We’ll come back and we’ll retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it to you tell us that you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy will give you back every penny you spent on the original treatment posts will pay you no additional $25 for your time in trouble just for fooling with us. We want you to be happy with the service we provide for you don’t pay a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense. Please call faith pest control the day 7708239 to 02 and ask to speak to me Fred tally, I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions you might have.
Or Fred, thank you so much for all that information. The Beatles to me saying I want to hold your hand. But these guys seem like they make powder in a tunnel. So we’ll have to make sure that these guys don’t show up singing at your doorstep. So anyway, this is the faith Pest Control podcast. We have a lot of fun and lightning all the folks and Lj and blue j and Jasper on what to do about pest control. And of course if you have any issues with pest control, all you got to do is call 770-823-9202 or go to faith pest control, calm and more importantly subscribe to our podcast and Apple, Spotify, Amazon, you name it. We’re everywhere we’re podcasts are and share this podcast with your friends to have a pest free home. We’ll see you next month on the faith Pest Control podcast.
By Wisut Sittichaya, Roger A. Beaver, Lan-Yu Liu, Aran Ngampongsai – Sittichaya W et al. (2009) , CC BY 3.0, Link