Timbers and Furniture attacked
Many softwoods including Baltic pine, Hoop pine, Radiate pine, Oregon and Balsam Fir.
Hardwoods such as English oak and also plywood.
1. Replace infested timber with a resistant wood such as White cypress pine or resistant hardwoods.
2. Full fumigation for small items and furniture.
3. Alternatively if timbers are still sound and moderately infested, Austrapest qualified technicians can apply a surface treatment. The safest formulation available in Australia at present is Deltamethrin.
Yearly application combined with regular inspections for the period of the life cycle of the beetle is recommended.
Deltamethrin is a Pyrethroid insecticide and has a relatively low toxicity to humans compared to previously used chemicals.
Powderpost Beetles - Lyctus brunneus & Lyctus discedens
Powderpost beetles vary in size from 3-6mm and are dark brown with short antennae. Larvae are curled with 3 pair of well defined thoracic legs and two enlarged spiracles on the second last abdomen segment. This borer is considered to be native.
The Powderpost beetle lays its eggs in exposed end pores in the sapwood of susceptible timbers (some hardwood timbers only). The eggs hatch and larvae feed in the sapwood. When fully fed they bore close to the surface of the wood and later emerge as beetles.
Timber Pest Inspectors make their identification of this borer based on the type of wood attacked, on the emergence holes (around 1.5-2.0mm in diameter), and the frass (a fine powdery dust) from their workings.