Measurement

After realising I had a problem in 2008, my experiments with boron led me to think that sitting and wait for the chemicals to do their job might be my best strategy.

In 2009 I started recording my observations. I did intend to log how many beetles I found each week with a view to publishing my findings so I could see when the beetles were most active and to confirm that over time they were dying out. By killing the beetles when they exit the wood, the breeding cycle is broken.

So I set about collecting beetles whether dead or alive. By collecting them and putting them in a tin, they weren't finding mates and laying eggs on the beams.

In 2009 I collected around 500 beetles from the house.

I couldnt find any information on the internet to indicate how bad, a bad infestation is. One article suggested in a bad infestation you can see them popping out the wall. So providing a number helped me get a feel for the scale of the problem.

Of the 500 I collected about 90% were dead - the poison had clearly worked but some were very much alive and survived weeks in my tin of death. They had not been exposed to the poison. How come? Well - chemical treatment of wood only treats exposed surfaces. For my beamed walls only 1 surface has been treated - in other words only 25% of the exposed surfaces have chemical treatment. What I really need to do is strip away all the plaster between the beams and have 2 more surfaces treated. An expensive activity and not something I would want to do. It might be worth doing long term to improve the insulation performance of my old leaky house.

The beetle collection resumed in 2010. A similar number was collected.

In 2011, the number of beetles was down to about 350 beetles - relatively few beetles emerged but there was a frenzy week in May when about 150 of the 350 beetles emerged.

So far 2012 has seen fairly low numbers of beetles. Currently about 50 collected so far.

I have resorted to some other pest control methods. I have a de-humidifier to remove moisture in the house and hopefully dry out the beams. It doesn’t look like it has had a a massive effect on the moisture levels in the beams but then a few percent fall can be life or death for the beetles. The problem is my wife doesn’t like having the dehumidifier on.....

I have also adopted a chemical treatment regime of my own. I have a spray can of Kibosh insect killer. I have replaced the nozzle with a straw nozzle from a can of WD40. This allows me to insert the straw deep into the death watch beetle holes and spray the poison in. Whenever I find the frass or a death watch beetle, I spray into the new hole.

Why do this? Firstly not all beetles will emerge - they can find mates in their own tunnels in the wood. Not all holes are tunnels but some are. By spraying in, the poison is sprayed deep into the timber rather than just the surface of normal chemical treatment. Once when I did this it caused a flurry of beetles (about 5) to exit from other holes.