Photograph them and post them on here. or check out www.planetepassion.eu which covers most creatures in Franceland.
A maggot is a larvae stage of a full metamorphic insect (egg, larvae, pupae, adult), so it could be a myriad of beasts. Why not take a cutting, put in in a jar with some gauze and wait and see what happens. You could get a surprise in a few days, or wait several years!
BTW, A semi metamorphic insect goes from egg to what looks like a little adult, it will shed it's skin several times before becoming an adult, so no maggot etc. Bed bug being the perfect example!
We collected some old vine trimmings for cooking over but last night hubby noticed they have what he calls maggots. Not sure what they are look a bit like maggots and are burrowing into the rotting wood of the vines. Doesn't make me want to cook over them at the moment that's for sure. Could they be something nasty and if so what should we do with them?
Haha, good old health and safety, no mask, goggles or combinasions!! No wonder there was coughing from the grenier.
Covering several points, there are no DDT pest control products legally available in France, the product being used is correct, application is a bit suss. Any seriously infested wood ideally should be replaced if possible, drilling holes into structurally unsound wood then injecting it with a water-based compound will not make it structurally stronger.
What is being done in the 10 second vid is generally good enough, although I would use a 3 bar "pulverisateur" which gives a finer spray than that shown, which will penetrate the smallest of boreholes. 2 coats for a super soakage.
How did you know you had them? Telltale signs it’s DWB? We had the inspector’s certs against both on buying our place in 2010 but now something, we think, is munching one of the huge oak beams upstairs…bits like dust are falling in places and there’s evidence of chewing in that a small part of the wood is soft. We’re living in fear.
That's a good point Myles, I too am nervous about their presence, and in certain areas cannot continue with renovation works until I am sure they have been eradicated because to continue would cover the timbers in which they are living making later remedial works very costly. We will also have a guarantee to fall back on should they re-appear.
Having said all that, given that I have read that DWB infestations are depenedent on the presence of a certain fungus, I suspect the boring larvae in our house were Capricorn.
We had trouble with Death Watch Beetle about 4 years ago. We first found them in our wooden bannisters. The trouble is that the little blighters seem to make their entrance into the wood in an inconspicuous location and then start eating from the inside out. Our solution was to rip out the bannisters and burn them, and we later replaced them with cast iron bannisters (at considerable expense). Later, rather like you, we heard 'munchings' during the night in our bedroom door. In order not to have to dispense with the door completely, I tried fixing on the location of the munchings and drilled tiny holes into the door and pumped termite killer through a similarly tiny nozzle into the door, with eventual success. Having had trouble with these beetles, I am continually nervous about the possibility that they will reappear somewhere. A while later, I found some larvae that I thought might be Death Watch inside the rotting trunk of a tamarisk tree, so I doused that with killer. So far, I have not detected any boring beetles in the roof space, thank goodness. I have heard that these beetles don't like chestnut wood, not that I have roof beams made from chestnut, but I'm not sure how much truth there is in that. Please keep us informed over your experience. Aren't you going to have to vacate the property for a while after the treatment, because of the fumes?
The DWB are already in some large structural beams, they are around 35 by 45 cms and the top half of them are not accessible, would surface treatment suffice under those circumstances? Bearing in mind that if one of them were to fail I would be in big trouble, even if they were to deflect slightly newly installed Velux windows would start to stick, plasterboard would crack etc. I agree that surface treatment is an excellent preventative measure when correctly applied but when the heart of the wood already contains them, they will not be affected by such treatment I would have thought?
20 year guarantees on those products are surely just marketing tricks, can you imagine walking in to Castorama today with a receipt from 1995 for a tin of Xylophene and expecting anything to be done about your current infestation?!
Theo offers great wisdom on the fungal problems. He is basically right about ventilation to help prevent the fungus that thrives in damp(ish) wood but once it has occurred needs to be treated too. We had a little bit of DWB where some beams that had been termite infected but treated had been wrapped in plastic sheeting that was really there to direct leaks in the roof back out of the roof. Fortunately, the people who came to re-treat the termite damage (it came with the house purchase and was the vendor who paid but we were in when it happened) despite all of their coffee and fag breaks and taking twice the time they should have, did give good advice. We had somebody arrive from their firm with a can of fungicide which they gave us for me to do but at least used some of our daughters' chalk to show us where to treat the timbers and a recommendation for a reliable roofer to 'patch' that bit. All good learning ground from our point of view.
Excellent, well done in getting your wood treated. You posted last year that you had DWB, I didn't realise you had termites as well?!
Treatment for termites is a specific qualification/diploma, preventing/monitoring with termite traps is usually as effective. The pins will remain in place in the wood for ever more, if it's in the attic, no problem but if it's in the bedroom or lounge, it could like like 'Hellraiser'.
There are in my opinion equally effective and cheaper options available, like surface spraying which I recommended. At least you will have peace of mind for the next 10 years (bizarrely DIY wood treatment liquids have a 20 year guarantee but professional grade product comes with 10 year guarantee!).
James this is probably one of the greater nightmares. Good that your photos have a proper resolution. You must definitely ensure that the artisans do not create another problem: Some wood preservatives here in France include the highly toxic substances lindane, PCP and DDT and other toxic substances (arsenic and chromium compounds) which you find in Xyladecor. Then you wake up with headaches....
Death Watch Beetle is considered as a secondary pest, since only wood is infested, which is already damaged by a wood-destroying fungi. For your works planed it is therefore necessary to remove the cause and control a fungal disease. Through their huge hunger of the beetle larvae can significantly accelerate and enhance the destruction of the wood and must go quickly.
Why a fungi? Wood-destroying fungi can exist only under specific conditions. They are particularly dependent on moisture. The moisture must be below 20 per cent, whereby in your timber the moisture is 8 to 16 percent. You are one of these DYI guys, so e.g. did you used wet wood? (the "special offers") and / installed some of these energy saving windproof windows in your attic? They are also reasons for the increase of moisture.
