My discussion with the woodworm treatment starts with I think I have a new infestation of death watch beetle. I am then asked when they treated the property - I naievely thought this was so they could look up the records....
The chemicals used to treat timber, and my 17th century cottage has a lot of oak beams which holds the house up, only penetrates a few millimeters into the wood. Think of the woodworm living in the beam as now encased in a lethal tomb. When the deathwatch beetle decide to exit (March to June each year), they then munch their way through the poison wood which kills them. The problem is that deathwatch beetles can live a long time - it can take between 7 and 12 years for them to mature and decide to escape.
The annoying scratching I was hearing was the male beetle banging his head against the inside of the wood to attract a mate.
So here I am thinking I've had the wood treated to kill the beetles only to find that these squatters are living in my house and I cant evict them for upto another 10 years.
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