How to identify and get rid of old house borers

If you live in an older home with beautiful exposed timber beams, you might think your home is more susceptible to wood-boring beetles. For the old house borer, it prefers homes that are only four to seven years old.

This longhorn beetle can be quite damaging to homes with untreated or poorly maintained wood. Although they don’t pose a direct threat to humans, their larvae can cause serious damage by tunneling through wooden structures, potentially weakening the integrity of your home.

Old house borers have a long life cycle, with larvae that can take years to mature. It’s the larvae that do all the tunneling and damage. Females will find dead pine, fir, and spruce wood and lay their eggs in the wood. The larvae then eat their way through the wood and after 2-10 years, will exit out of the wood as an adult.

Damage can be happening in your home without you even realizing it! This slow but steady destruction can go unnoticed for a long time, making it crucial to identify and treat an infestation early.

Old house borers have grayish-brown bodies with distinctive white spots on their wing covers, along with long, segmented antennae. Their bodies are elongated and slightly flattened, and their wing covers have ridges. If you notice small, oval exit holes in wooden beams, along with fine sawdust beneath the wood, these are signs of an old house borer infestation. The larvae, which you probably won’t ever see, are cream-colored and can be found tunneling within the wood, creating hollow sounds when you tap the wood.

How big are old house borers?

Adult old house borers can grow up to 3/4 inch long.

Old house borers are found throughout the United States but are more common in homes and buildings with untreated or poorly maintained wood. You’re most likely to find old house borers in wooden beams, floorboards, and other structural wood within your home. They prefer wood that is at least 10 years old.

Keeping old house borers out of your house is easier to do than trying to remove an infestation that is already in the wood. Sealing up cracks and gaps around your home should do the trick.

If you suspect you have old house borers in your wooden floors, beams, or posts, consider these options:

• Replace infested wood: If the infestation is localized, removing and replacing the affected wood can eliminate the problem.
• Improve ventilation: Old house borers thrive in damp environments, so increasing ventilation and reducing humidity in crawl spaces, basements, and attics can make the environment less hospitable.

Additionally, establishing a perimeter spray around your home can keep old house borers at bay. Check out Pestie’s pro-grade DIY solution for an easy way to keep your home pest-free this year.