# Woodworm beetles in viv



## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

Looks like we have wood worm beetles that have emerged from a piece of oak in my new viv. The oak was scrubbed with virkon s and left to cure for a couple of months before use. 2 weeks on from placing in viv, the bugs appeared. Holes in the piece of wood with "dust" falling out if moved. 

Am I right in thinking the beetles are not harmful to the snake?

I'm assuming I need to completely empty my viv, clean it and start again. My concern is if the other wood in the viv is likely to now be infested 😬 The viv itself is melamine coated and well sealed, so hoping that is safe as brand new, purpose built one? 

Really not what I needed right now.


----------



## DaveO'B (3 mo ago)

Hi, was this from an oak branch, taken 'from the wild'? If so, while it may well contain the larvae of wood-boring beetles (they don't infest it, it was their home first!), these are not necessarily one of the species that can become a problem in your house. Have you found any of the adult beetles? If so, would you be able to get a photo of one? It may not be possible to ID it, as there are over 650 species of beetle in the UK which feed on deadwood (not necessarily restricted to oak), but it may help to eliminate it as one of the harmful species.

Cheers,
Dave


----------



## spigotbush (Feb 8, 2019)

woodworm rarely bothers with the chip/ply/mdf stuff. they would have to eat the glue so so they dont tend to get in. the best way to treat the timber is to bake it. i get the oven up to 110c-130c and give things a good hour for a normal clean up but if you want to be sure then give it two or even three. you need to make sure the heat gets right into the centre of the timber and it will get rid of most living organisms. it shouldnt get hot enough to catch fire but keep an eye just in case.
i dont rate just scrubbing as a treatment of roundwood. it will treat bacteria and things but as i have mentioned before most of the actual bugs live under the bark which is very effective at keeping moisture in/out or in the sapwood which is the vast majority of small branches. a scrub is not without its merits but sustained heat is best for bugs. 
if its heaving with bugs and its dropping dust then you are probably best throwing that bit of wood out. the dust may well cause irritation to the nose or mouth, not a sure thing but best not to risk it. the beetles themselves are rarely large enough to cause any harm to a snake but if they are out and about then they may lay eggs on other bits of untreated wood around the house.

for future reference i would strongly advise hunting out standing deadwood, dead branches that are still on the tree or hung up in branches, that has lost its bark. most of the sapwood bugs will have been and gone by that point and it will be free from sap. if you collect greenwood then the best thing to do is peel the bark off and that will limit what bugs would be attracted to it. they are generally drawn in by the smell of the sap which is most plentiful between the bark and sapwood. baking it thoroughly will do a lot to minimise that. if you want to keep the bark on then i would say its best to take some time and bake it through several times to effectively fast track the seasoning process. if you have a large amount to do at once or big branches you want to keep fully intact then you could ask around any local firewood producers and see if they use a kiln, they might agree to throwing some branches in with a load.
baking does mean you will have smaller pieces (my oven takes roughly 15" on average) but you can get inventive with the layout. for bigger bits you could use a lap-joint to cut them into suitably sized chunks and still be able to fix them back together once treated. 
obviously you may still get woodworm in any untreated timber but its only a few bugs that affect old timber while a rather large amount will affect branchwood and green timber.


----------



## Elly66 (Feb 27, 2021)

@DaveO'B @spigotbush 
We had adult beetles and when hubby shook the 2 branches with holes in, wood dust fell out. As we've completely emptied and cleaned everything in the viv and chucked the affected branches back outside, pics might be hard.

I can't remember what tree it was from, but the 2 affected branches were both the same type and were both dead branches with little bark. Most likely oak.
The branch unaffected was fresh and I think, from our apple tree and has its bark, so opposite to what you're saying @spigotbush 

Really annoyed as spent a while getting the branches cleaned up and to size. Just wish I could find a good way to kills any bugs in the affected ones. They're to big to bake or soak ( no bath). Oh well, sure my youngest will use them in the fire pit 😁


----------

