Am I very stupid?

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Stanleymonkey

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Been out for walks in the park over the road.

The kids collecting some big sticks and I was happy for them to bring them home knowing I had a tray of spokeshaves in the car. They had a lovely time shaving the bark off and making 'walking sticks'

I attacked a funny shaped one that had carving / shaping potential and as I removed the bark some familiar shaped holes and tunnels appeared with little pale fleshy things in them.

I am assuming woodworm. The sticks are now in a concrete alley at the side of the house and I will dispose of them in the morning.

Is that the only thing it can be? I have swept up all the shavings but they were working outside anyway and I think mine was the only one with any holes.
 
You'll be fine.

But I expect SunnyBob will be along soon saying that you need to burn all the timber in your house, just to be on the safe side! :)
 
Relax. Woodworm need cool damp conditions. Nineteen degrees is the normally cited figure above which they can't survive, but even then they needs damp conditions, and particularly, damp wood. Turned loose in an ordinary centrally heated house they have almost no chance of surviving.

Where you might need to be a little more cautious is in an intermittently heated workshop. If you introduced woodworm into there then you might be chucking out more than you bargained for simply because they (workshops) are seldom as warm and dry as a house.

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings woodworm advice.
 
AndyT":1vwe1nz0 said:
But I expect SunnyBob will be along soon saying that you need to burn all the timber in your house, just to be on the safe side! :)

Real footage of Bob preparing for the "Woodworm Purge"

VibrantMilkyHoneybee-size_restricted.gif
 
Thanks

I was putting their walking sticks away in the shed when I decided to attack the funny shaped one. That what when I discovered the worms. Lucky escape more like. They might have been forgotten about and left in a cool shed for a week or more. Then I would have been in trouble.
 
Did somebody call? 8)

Burn the sticks, dont give them a chance to breed and fly back into your store.You do know they fly, right?

Mike.... 19 degrees? My one and only attack was here in Cyprus. Summer temps are always 40c. I had the plane a year before they decided to come out and play so they survived at least two summers that I know of.

Damp? aint no damp wood on this island except in march.

And who snuck that picture of me clay pigeon shooting? :shock:
 
sunnybob":h81v085b said:
Did somebody call? 8)

Burn the sticks, dont give them a chance to breed and fly back into your store.You do know they fly, right?

Mike.... 19 degrees? My one and only attack was here in Cyprus. Summer temps are always 40c. I had the plane a year before they decided to come out and play so they survived at least two summers that I know of.

Damp? aint no damp wood on this island except in march.

And who snuck that picture of me clay pigeon shooting? :shock:

My experience with Greek woodworm is that any freshly cut or recently dead wood will be attacked in the spring - all of it - but never again afterwards. There seems to be a "one and done" arrangement. They also seem to stay very close to the outer edge of the wood, not venturing deep inside. I haven't had any issues with woodworm attacking dried wood of any variety, and I have a lot of wood in the house, outside the house, sheds etc. Hardcore imported UK woodworm may well be a different kettle of fish.

Termites, however, I do have problems with...
 
sunnybob":3j7d4jjv said:
Did somebody call? 8)

Burn the sticks, dont give them a chance to breed and fly back into your store.You do know they fly, right?

Mike.... 19 degrees? My one and only attack was here in Cyprus. Summer temps are always 40c. I had the plane a year before they decided to come out and play so they survived at least two summers that I know of.

Damp? aint no damp wood on this island except in march.........:

Then they aren't likely to have been the British woodworm. There are plenty of other types of wood boring insects all over the world in all sorts of climates. Even if they were our woodworm, then they were munching away inside cool damp wood. An inch year, remember, for seasoning, so it could have taken that long for your plane handle to dry to the point they couldn't live there any more. The 19 degree thing is not about a temperature at which they die, but a temperature above which a population won't develop or sustain itself.
 

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