The most common species found in the UK is undoubtedly the Common Furniture Beetle, a wood-boring insect known for causing significant damage to both soft and hard woods. The larvae of these beetles bore through the wood, digesting the cellulose within. After two to three years, they form a pupal chamber near the surface, where they undergo transformation into adult beetles. During the summer months, the adult beetles bore their way out, creating the characteristic woodworm hole in the process. Once emerged, the adult beetles, capable of flight, mate, and the females lay their eggs (up to sixty) in cracks, crevices, or old flight holes. Subsequently, the eggs hatch, marking the beginning of a new generation.
Wood-boring beetles have the potential to attack any untreated timbers within a property. Even new timbers are vulnerable due to the high starch content found in the sapwood of young trees. Given the current high levels of demand for timber, trees are not afforded the necessary growing time required to develop greater natural resistance to wood-boring beetle and fungal attacks.
