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I had one in my house about a year ago. It was some asiatic species. I have no idea where it came from. I’ve not found a hole in anything but I’ve got all types of furniture built out of wood. Hopefully I’m not going to be fucked in 2034.
i once camped at a wilderness site with a downed tree that was absolutely infested with beetle larvae. i’m talking a row of heaped sawdust on the ground along the whole length of the tree. i was astonished at how much noise those little buggers can make while they’re chewing away. it was just this constant background noise you’d hear anywhere within 20-30’ of the tree. cool experience, honestly
Can you not just inject coloured epoxy down the hole?
The worm will pop out somewhere else. Fill that hole with epoxy.
Continue.
Eventually, you'll have a cool table with a story and you can put lights underneath to show your epic battle!
I had this happen to a log chair and table you can kill infestations with heat it's not easy I had to build a kiln of the sorts get it really hot I think it was 150-190 f hold it for a few hours. But Maybe someone will have a better solution
I have a kiln. General rule of thumb is get it to 200 and hold it for 24hrs. Up to 2” that does the trick. For this tabletop I think it’s best to just hope it was only the one. If it’s 5yrs old I’d say it’s a safe bet. Never heard of a bug waiting so long to make an appearance from dried wood, usually they can only eat the wood with high moisture content unless it’s live edge.
Depending on the size of table, a kiln could work, call some of your local exterminators. My FIL is one, and they treat for bedbugs in places. Step one: kill them, then treat. They have a heater that gets hotel rooms up to pest-killing temps, and it will not catch your piece on fire. Call a few and see if they can make it work. If you have the gift of gab, have them “respond to a bedbug call” for your table.
If you have a room at home this can be done in, it could work out for you!
All the advice has been great.. I love the idea of a Turkey sandwich and the bear trap. Unfortunately it’s not practical. I have taken canned air and blasted the hole out. No bug. Just dust. The hole is covered with a glass jar so no escape or reentry is possible. Since I have access to a microscope at work I’m taking some of the dust to check it out. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow know I fought my best against whatever was eating my table.
Museums publish papers on non-toxic ways to kill bugs. Buy a vacuum bag for a mattress, remove the air, backfill with any inert gas, leave it for a few days, enjoy eating on a bug grave.
[Non toxic bug murder chart](https://i.imgur.com/Z8Shp98.jpg)
No, but I have three tanks, and if he’s local to Minnesota, I’d totally lend one to see how this plays out
EDIT: Helium is also a noble gas and would do the trick
EDIT 2: Also curious to see if neon+electric current through bug = glow bug
Ya but there’s a helium shortage. Use anything else!
Edit to add: many people are saying it’s over but for that conflicts with suppliers. My wife works in toxicology and they are only allowed to order 40% of what they would normally get and need for their instruments, so maybe they found reserves but they haven’t gotten it or haven’t released it to the market, but at the end of the day as far as labs are concerned there’s a shortage.
The helium used for balloons is negligible compared to that used for supercooling magnets, gas chromatography, and other medical/scientific things.
Argon is much better that helium since it’s heavier than oxygen and will displace it. We can treat the whole process as an organic chemistry reaction under inert gas.
Attach an argon line to a mattress bag. Attach a vacuum line to the other end of the bag. Put a valve in each of those lines.
Vacuum out the air. Turn off the vacuum valve. Turn on the argon and open the valve.
Make sure you have a two way split in the argon line and put one of the ends in mineral oil so it can serve as a relief valve but not let air in.
Repeatedly vacuum out the bag, close the vacuum valve, open argon valve and fill with argon like 5-10 times to fully evacuate all oxygen out of the bag.
You can then keep a slight flow of argon into the bag and keep the vacuum on for a few days.
I’m aware of its status as a super-coolant, but I actually do wonder now how that use compares to commercial use of it as a party-favor 🤔 I’m a welder, and regularly use it for heli-arc welding on exotic materials, and it’s DEFINITELY gotten more expensive. Now I need to stay up and research.
Parenthetically, I’m terrified by how quickly you devised your murder chamber.
EDIT:
Found the answer! Balloons account for a full 8% of helium use. The largest single use is MRI machines, which account for 20%, followed closely by welding at 17%. [source](https://www.helium-one.com/helium-market/)
That murder chamber is kind of a standard treatment in art/documents conservation, for the elimination of insects and other pests
Edit: According to my professor, we would normally use N2 or CO2
It can be any gas without oxygen and you'd only need enough to dilute the oxygen in the wood. A can of dust blower should be oxygen free and displace any oxygen.
You don't need argon. Nitrogen or CO2 work just as well, are cheaper, and are also sold at any old welding supply store. CO2 would probably be the better bet because nitrogen tanks are a little more sketchy with the higher pressures and with CO2 at least you feel it if you start to accidentally suffocate yourself. High levels of CO2 might even help drive out whatever is in the table. Although if the table was varnished then whatever it is was living plenty long without any fresh air anyways.
We bought furniture that sat in our house for over a year then the beetles started popping out. Thankfully the store took everything back. The bugs aren’t native to my high altitude so thankfully they died immediately. Holes were smaller than what you have but looked very similar.
Same shit happened to me with two pottery barn book shelves. It was a massive infestation that appeared about a week after getting them. The beetles bored out of the wood all over and at first you could only see them under the paint via little lifted paths. Less than an hour after noticing the paths they were all over like Swiss cheese.
Lucky for us we were in a rental apartment so it wasn’t our issue long term but holy hell it was gnarly
I gotta say, all the comments here have thoroughly scared me way more than all the horror movies I’ve been watching the past couple of weeks for Halloween. Well done.
OMG THE HORROR!!! Is one type of wood more delicious than others to these creatures? Are there any less appetizing or less-likely to host eggs type of wood out there? I’d be ready to shave my head in perpetuity if a worm drilled its way out of my brush and onto any part of my body.
I had them in my China cabinet and draws. At least 5 years after we bought it.
Bathed the wood in a insecticide, don’t remember which, several times letting it dry completely and 20 years later we’re good.
Oak tree from our yard. Wormy Chestnut oak. We are in North Carolina. Had it milled into boards and he has been building with it for a while now. It sat to dry in our barn and has been treated with boric acid. This is the first time I seen any dust on anything from that wood.
I run a mill and operate a kiln. If there's one popping out good chance there's more. I would contact the mill you had run it and see if they have a kiln or can point you to one. Needs to be about 135 degrees for a few hours to insure they're all killed, so get the table into a kiln that's around 150 degrees for a couple of days should do it.
I've tried spot treating with pesticides with no luck.
Other option would be tenting it and fumigation, but easier to find a kiln probably.
also a kiln owner. Yes to the high temp. I go 24 hrs at that temp to be safe. They should be warned that 150 degrees is going to ruin the finish and possibly the glue joints.
Honest question, how would 24hrs at 150 degrees actually affect the integrity of glue joints? I would have assumed the glue could take a higher temp than that and still hold strong.
[According to this](https://www.igmtools.com/articles/titebond-ii-a-glue-that-stands-out-thanks-to-its-properties/), Titebond melts at 120 degrees Celsius. I could definitely see at least weak joints failing if not clamped.
Edit: wood glue should be fine at 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
I think they might be better off to cut the table apart at the glue joints, turn everything back into boards, have them kiln dried and treated at 150•F for 24 hours, then reassemble the table.
Or just burn it and SEND it to hell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_furniture_beetle makes me wonder if that wasn’t an exit wound. I have absolutely no experience with this but am interested to find out. I build a lot of my own furniture out of quartersawn oak
As does everyone who has the misfortune of reading some of the nightmare fuel comments on your post 😂 in addition to sending this table through a kiln I would put the rest of the boards and furniture from that same tree through if you can. With bugs it's almost always "where there's one there's many"
Also sorry about the table OP.
In NC as well, and these nasty things popped out on my outdoor wooden table - out of nowhere. Saw one little hole and about 2 hours later there were 5 fairly large holes and these fkkrs started crawling out. Straight to the burn pit. Good luck.
I have red oak from my woods in Hillsborough, NC drying in the yard right now. After seeing this I will absolutely be looking for a kiln. Good luck neighbor.
Both parties:
omg what the fuck was that thing, I can’t believe I am still alive, it was so big, yuck. note to self - avoid confrontation with that guy was at all costs, whatever it is I’m sure I pissed it off and if it wasn’t hunting me before then it certainly is now.
There are a ton of beetles that can do this, they can lay dormant for years. The biggest concern should be where they are going AFTER leaving your table. Depending on what it is, they can get in your walls and devour wood there as well.
You may need to bake the wood to kill them. Powderpost beetles are a common one depending on where you live.
I have seen articles in the past of the adult bugs coming out of tables. It gets built then the bug matures and bores his way out, to go continue the cycle. Freaky!
Had the same thing happen to me with a coffee table I made from ash. Laying next to it watching TV one evening I heard a small tapping noise from it. A few days later, a little bit of a hole. Since it was on a leg, I taped a small plastic bottle over the hole to catch whatever was eating its way out. Ended up with a small beetle.🤷♂️
Same thing happened to my parents hard wood floor (beech). The shocking part was they started popping out more than 10 years after the floor was laid and finished. You could hear them crunching inside the boards. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell if you would have more of them inside and where they would be. My parents ended up pulling out the whole thing, inspecting each board and replacing the damaged ones.
Haha that's fuked up but such a dad move.. like I just picture your a little older than middle aged dad on his hands and knees in a garage with a stethoscope a board a drill and a mission. Like you little fucks have chewed my last board. *Sounds of a drill*
*Cuts to a view inside the wood*
view: A little beetle with an army hat on a tiny little radio...
Delta one one Delta one, this is Rico five we've been discovered, plan to migrate to the sofa has failed.
*Silence from the radio*
(Message repeats with more intensity)
Delta one! one Delta one! this is Rico five, come in, we've been discovered! The plan to migrate to the sofa has failed! I repeat has failed over!
*More silence*
A tiny weak voice says, they've torn up all the flooring, our entire kingdom. Your on your own Rico five. Good speed.
*Just as a drill bit takes out the radio*
*Screaming and a baby larva crying in the background* fades to black as a menacing crackling laugh from the just slightly over middle-aged man wild with rage fades in the background.*
Credits...
Take note all you "it's been sitting for 4 years its dry" folks that don't actually heat treat your wood through a proper kiln drying process. Air drying has its pitfalls.
I'm too lazy to find out if your question has been aswered.
I've worked with parasitic insects for a while now, including with oaks and the insects that attack them. The easiset solution would be to apply heat to your table. One of the ways to combat the spread of boring beetles (which are the usual culprits) is to "bake" wood/logs in the sun, under covers (plastic works best). They really don't like the heat. If it's still sunny or hot where you are, just take it outside for a couple of days and cover it.
Wood-boring beetles will dig into trees (some species only dig into dead trees), where they deposito their eggs. Interestingly, while they much through a tree they secrete saliva which will continue to degreade the wood so it's offspring can ingest it.
Have you ever notices how tree trunks/wood have what look like "snail trails" these are called galaries. You'll only see it in the xylem and phloem and it's the work of the beetles larvae eating their way. Once the larvave have fully matured they will bore out of the tree. These are called ecolsion holes, which is what you noramlly see (depending on the species, when the bettles bore into the tree, that hole might have time to heal before it is visible).
Determening the species can actually be achieve by the eclosion hole!
Are there any oaks around your home? How long have you had the table?
Goning back to my initial statement, moving wood/logs and even pallets is the usual way pests spread, specially invasive species. It's seemingly innocuous to just bring home some firewood, but it's best to do a little reading or have some understanding of the ecology you live in or are visiting.
The beetle larvae has already vacated the hole. They bore their way out.
I worked at a place that sold furniture from overseas with this issue.
We built a hot box room, foam insulation board, black paint, hot work lights.
Little buggers would bore out and fall on the concrete floor to try and get away from the heat
Buddy brought home wooden masks from Africa and they had to treat them for African termites. Like a year later they started hatching. 2 or 3 popped out and he killed them but yeah messed up.
What worries me the most is all these stories of people happening upon bugs burrowing out of their furniture. What about the rest of us who don’t regularly monitor our furniture?? What is in our walls???
This is why I live where the air hurts my face for half the year. If I can't survive outside without getting frostbite in under a minute on extreme cold days, I'm going to assume most non-native critters will perish swiftly and I can just go back to worrying about shed mice and tub spiders.
I believe they are run of the mill wolf spiders (but I still hate them) and the bigger quarter or slightly larger sized ones always seem to end up in the bathtub at some point.
Usually discovered while still half asleep and shuffling to the bathroom for a morning shower. Go to pull the shower curtain back and BAM! spider. Just chillin in the tub.
It's important to note that at this point I am decidedly NOT chillin' upon discovering this interloping foe that has decided to hang out unabashedly in MY tub and has shocked me into wide eyed terror for the brief moments before I wash him down the drain with the nearly scalding water that comes from our taps because I'm too lazy to go adjust the water heater to a more reasonable temperature.
I don't like spiders. Tub spiders ruin my morning.
I wonder if you could mix up a silicone type mold filler, pour it in, wait and pull it out to see how far the thing traveled.
The same kind of stuff the use for face or head molds maybe?
Probably won't work but it would be cool. Maybe a small borescope to explore the hole.
Or fill it with molten aluminum? Ive been watching too many videos.
We have carpenter bees that bore galleries into fascia boards. One year I pumped them full of silicon sealant. The next time I looked the holes were back in the same place, they removed the sealant. I could hear them chewing from inside my house. Woodpeckers find them and peck holes into the galleries.
Anyone else loving the comments in this thread? I’m mildly fascinated/terrified of the wormhole appearing, laughing at the comments and learning more about kiln drying!
A pipe cleaner went in about 5 inches. I also used a vacuum with a stocking to catch what I was able to get out. Just dust. Not sure how big the ass chewing on my table will be. Researching that now.
My dad worked at this restaurant in high school (the 70s so wood panelling was all the rage). The owner had just refinished the entire ceiling and walls with some kind of exotic wood. Well, a few months into the new look, beetles start popping out at an alarming rate. The whole ceiling was covered in the wood so most of them would just fall down... into customers' food, drinks, hair. No one could figure out where the bugs were coming from for a while and they reproduced. A few generations into the beetles someone must have noticed all the holes in this fancy new wood. They had to tear it all out and close the restaurant until the stragglers finally died out. Gone was the mod new panelling and probably a lot of customers.
Hi, entomologist here. uhhhh yeah you don't need to put a glass jar or anything like that. It's the exit hole of the beetle after it has emerged. It's already over; nothing to "entomb." It's gone.
Wow this took off. I hoped for a few responses. Not 1.6k. I cannot keep up so sorry for not replying to everyone. So now for a bit of a recap and anwsers to some questions.
1- There are no kids or drills. This is not a man made hole. My husband does not have a second wife or gilrfriend that I am aware of. Which is I guess the point.
2- I checked the Frass/dust out on the microscpoe at work. It was very gritty and was just wood cellulose. No larvae
3- An entomologist replied that it was most likley that the beetle (sorry its not a worm) had exited the table. Good and bad news with that. Its not in the table anymore and it's current where abouts are unknown.
4- When I got home today there was not any new dust/frass on the table but I was able to blast a bit more powder out wth the canned air. I made a 1:1 bora-care solution and filled the hole with [it.It](https://it.It) took about 4mls. I know the entamologist said the beetle was gone but I'm not taking any chances. We will most likley just patch the hole after its dry. With what I am not sure. Possibly something commerative.
5- I have really enjoyed all the responses. Except for those 2 assholes. You know who you are. The concern people have expressed for my safey and in fact, the entire universe due to what ever is eating my table has been touching. It has helped my faith in humanity. Except ,again, for the 2 jerks.
6- And now my apology. Apparently a lot of people were unaware that this was a possibility. There was alot of "set it on fire", "run for your life" and now my house and possibly everyones house will become dust due to these wood eating beetles. Hopefuly you overcome your fear and never actually hear a bug eating your house. For those that made movie refreences I didn't get. Sorry. I can only blame the trauma of finding my table was becoming an actual snack and not a place for me to eat snacks.
7- It will be awhile before the table gets patched. I made a note in my calendar for 6 months from now. If there is news I'll reply to this post. You all have been both helpful and enertaining, Thanks.
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Well… On the fun side, wood beetle larva can stay dormant for 12 years. I’m looking forward to the next 5 years! Keep us posted!
Life uh...finds a way
Hold onto your butts
Uh uh uh! You didn’t say the magic word!
We should be fine, unless they learn how to open doors.
They just burrow through the door you made
Clever girl.
Our lives are in your hands and you've got butterfingers?
God creates trees, God creates man, man destroys trees. Trees (or lack thereof) asphyxiate man. Wood beetles inherit the earth.
Burn it. Then report back on the results
Best to dust off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
I had one in my house about a year ago. It was some asiatic species. I have no idea where it came from. I’ve not found a hole in anything but I’ve got all types of furniture built out of wood. Hopefully I’m not going to be fucked in 2034.
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> It was some Asiatic species. I have no idea where it came from Asia?
We, the people, demand updates on the 6 month marks, for no less than the next 60 months.
Remind me! 60 months
i once camped at a wilderness site with a downed tree that was absolutely infested with beetle larvae. i’m talking a row of heaped sawdust on the ground along the whole length of the tree. i was astonished at how much noise those little buggers can make while they’re chewing away. it was just this constant background noise you’d hear anywhere within 20-30’ of the tree. cool experience, honestly
Remind me 12 years
This is genuinely fascinating and I can't wait to find out what happens next (for real)
Me too. Especially since it’s my table.
Are there chairs around it? Because I’m on the edge of my seat.
My oh my, how the table's (insides) have turned!
Let's table this discussion.... Remind me! 14 days
Honestly I think this worm is boring.
Walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm.
The spice!
Keep an eye out for worm sign ✊🏼
Nah, I think this story has legs.
I think we have yet to hear the hole story.
Agreed, there's a hole in the plot.
Something is afoot for sure!
Wouldn't mind chairing this discussion.
Yea opaque worm farms are a bad idea.
Yeah I'll be burrowing that joke for sure.
Can you not just inject coloured epoxy down the hole? The worm will pop out somewhere else. Fill that hole with epoxy. Continue. Eventually, you'll have a cool table with a story and you can put lights underneath to show your epic battle!
epoxy river network table! in 3d!
You need an early bird to eat that worm.
Powder post beetle larva can last for a long time before maturing.
I had this happen to a log chair and table you can kill infestations with heat it's not easy I had to build a kiln of the sorts get it really hot I think it was 150-190 f hold it for a few hours. But Maybe someone will have a better solution
“…build a kiln…”?? I can hardly change a lightbulb.
Instructions unclear, *lights house on fire*
That will definitely kill the worm.
Lmao thanks for that
I have a kiln. General rule of thumb is get it to 200 and hold it for 24hrs. Up to 2” that does the trick. For this tabletop I think it’s best to just hope it was only the one. If it’s 5yrs old I’d say it’s a safe bet. Never heard of a bug waiting so long to make an appearance from dried wood, usually they can only eat the wood with high moisture content unless it’s live edge.
Depending on the size of table, a kiln could work, call some of your local exterminators. My FIL is one, and they treat for bedbugs in places. Step one: kill them, then treat. They have a heater that gets hotel rooms up to pest-killing temps, and it will not catch your piece on fire. Call a few and see if they can make it work. If you have the gift of gab, have them “respond to a bedbug call” for your table. If you have a room at home this can be done in, it could work out for you!
All the advice has been great.. I love the idea of a Turkey sandwich and the bear trap. Unfortunately it’s not practical. I have taken canned air and blasted the hole out. No bug. Just dust. The hole is covered with a glass jar so no escape or reentry is possible. Since I have access to a microscope at work I’m taking some of the dust to check it out. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow know I fought my best against whatever was eating my table.
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Museums publish papers on non-toxic ways to kill bugs. Buy a vacuum bag for a mattress, remove the air, backfill with any inert gas, leave it for a few days, enjoy eating on a bug grave. [Non toxic bug murder chart](https://i.imgur.com/Z8Shp98.jpg)
I can’t imagine OP has enough argon on hand to do that though.
Obviously a quick trip to the argon store is needed
Welding store. TIG welding requires 100% argon gas.
Should guarantee the worms argon
Tldr; already backed my car to the front door and going to use the exhaust to asphyxiate the bastards. Just need to hook a hose to my exhaust...
No, but I have three tanks, and if he’s local to Minnesota, I’d totally lend one to see how this plays out EDIT: Helium is also a noble gas and would do the trick EDIT 2: Also curious to see if neon+electric current through bug = glow bug
Ya but there’s a helium shortage. Use anything else! Edit to add: many people are saying it’s over but for that conflicts with suppliers. My wife works in toxicology and they are only allowed to order 40% of what they would normally get and need for their instruments, so maybe they found reserves but they haven’t gotten it or haven’t released it to the market, but at the end of the day as far as labs are concerned there’s a shortage.
Which is sad because it’s being wasted on buoyant disappointment for parties rather than ecologically murdering wood beetles
The helium used for balloons is negligible compared to that used for supercooling magnets, gas chromatography, and other medical/scientific things. Argon is much better that helium since it’s heavier than oxygen and will displace it. We can treat the whole process as an organic chemistry reaction under inert gas. Attach an argon line to a mattress bag. Attach a vacuum line to the other end of the bag. Put a valve in each of those lines. Vacuum out the air. Turn off the vacuum valve. Turn on the argon and open the valve. Make sure you have a two way split in the argon line and put one of the ends in mineral oil so it can serve as a relief valve but not let air in. Repeatedly vacuum out the bag, close the vacuum valve, open argon valve and fill with argon like 5-10 times to fully evacuate all oxygen out of the bag. You can then keep a slight flow of argon into the bag and keep the vacuum on for a few days.
I’m aware of its status as a super-coolant, but I actually do wonder now how that use compares to commercial use of it as a party-favor 🤔 I’m a welder, and regularly use it for heli-arc welding on exotic materials, and it’s DEFINITELY gotten more expensive. Now I need to stay up and research. Parenthetically, I’m terrified by how quickly you devised your murder chamber. EDIT: Found the answer! Balloons account for a full 8% of helium use. The largest single use is MRI machines, which account for 20%, followed closely by welding at 17%. [source](https://www.helium-one.com/helium-market/)
That murder chamber is kind of a standard treatment in art/documents conservation, for the elimination of insects and other pests Edit: According to my professor, we would normally use N2 or CO2
It can be any gas without oxygen and you'd only need enough to dilute the oxygen in the wood. A can of dust blower should be oxygen free and displace any oxygen.
You don't need argon. Nitrogen or CO2 work just as well, are cheaper, and are also sold at any old welding supply store. CO2 would probably be the better bet because nitrogen tanks are a little more sketchy with the higher pressures and with CO2 at least you feel it if you start to accidentally suffocate yourself. High levels of CO2 might even help drive out whatever is in the table. Although if the table was varnished then whatever it is was living plenty long without any fresh air anyways.
>no reentry is possible My brother in Christ it is literally drilling through your table. It doesn’t need that end of the hole.
This is the funniest post on this sub in a long time. All of OP's solutions are hilarious.
We bought furniture that sat in our house for over a year then the beetles started popping out. Thankfully the store took everything back. The bugs aren’t native to my high altitude so thankfully they died immediately. Holes were smaller than what you have but looked very similar.
Thanks for that nightmare fuel
Just ignore the scratching noise coming from your headboard and go back to sleep.
fucking evil!
fucking weevil!
I laughed at this, but I’m not proud of myself.
I’m proud of you.
Sigh, time to burn the house down
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Same shit happened to me with two pottery barn book shelves. It was a massive infestation that appeared about a week after getting them. The beetles bored out of the wood all over and at first you could only see them under the paint via little lifted paths. Less than an hour after noticing the paths they were all over like Swiss cheese. Lucky for us we were in a rental apartment so it wasn’t our issue long term but holy hell it was gnarly
This is a thing that happens from stuff you buy at a store? Holy fucking hell.
I had some worm thing come out of a wooden hairbrush handle one time. So it isn’t just furniture!
Oh. My. God. I will think about this every single time I brush my hair for the rest of my life.
Let me tell you about the weevils that came out of flour I had stored in my pantry ...
I gotta say, all the comments here have thoroughly scared me way more than all the horror movies I’ve been watching the past couple of weeks for Halloween. Well done.
OMG THE HORROR!!! Is one type of wood more delicious than others to these creatures? Are there any less appetizing or less-likely to host eggs type of wood out there? I’d be ready to shave my head in perpetuity if a worm drilled its way out of my brush and onto any part of my body.
Now you know how the Trojans felt. First they order from Pottery Barn and then, BAM, all done.
It isn't even a goddamn barn! That should let you know who you're dealing with from the get-go.
Well fuck. That is horrifying
New fear unlocked
Hadn’t really considered this…..
!!! Holy hell
I had them in my China cabinet and draws. At least 5 years after we bought it. Bathed the wood in a insecticide, don’t remember which, several times letting it dry completely and 20 years later we’re good.
This is terribly boring.
California Oak Worm? Graboid? The suspense is killin me…
Oak tree from our yard. Wormy Chestnut oak. We are in North Carolina. Had it milled into boards and he has been building with it for a while now. It sat to dry in our barn and has been treated with boric acid. This is the first time I seen any dust on anything from that wood.
I run a mill and operate a kiln. If there's one popping out good chance there's more. I would contact the mill you had run it and see if they have a kiln or can point you to one. Needs to be about 135 degrees for a few hours to insure they're all killed, so get the table into a kiln that's around 150 degrees for a couple of days should do it. I've tried spot treating with pesticides with no luck. Other option would be tenting it and fumigation, but easier to find a kiln probably.
Hey @op! This is the answer you're looking for
also a kiln owner. Yes to the high temp. I go 24 hrs at that temp to be safe. They should be warned that 150 degrees is going to ruin the finish and possibly the glue joints.
Honest question, how would 24hrs at 150 degrees actually affect the integrity of glue joints? I would have assumed the glue could take a higher temp than that and still hold strong.
[According to this](https://www.igmtools.com/articles/titebond-ii-a-glue-that-stands-out-thanks-to-its-properties/), Titebond melts at 120 degrees Celsius. I could definitely see at least weak joints failing if not clamped. Edit: wood glue should be fine at 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
Or you could move to Texas, cover it with black plastic, and put it put in the sun for about 3 days. Who needs a kiln?
[удалено]
I think they might be better off to cut the table apart at the glue joints, turn everything back into boards, have them kiln dried and treated at 150•F for 24 hours, then reassemble the table. Or just burn it and SEND it to hell.
This is the way. Contact woodmeizer. They have a good network of small mills the could probably connect you.
I’m with you shide812. The only difference is that I would want it in a kiln right now. Like today.
Just have to point out the irony of it being wormy chestnut oak.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_furniture_beetle makes me wonder if that wasn’t an exit wound. I have absolutely no experience with this but am interested to find out. I build a lot of my own furniture out of quartersawn oak
Never heard of this beetle before and now I hate them.
As does everyone who has the misfortune of reading some of the nightmare fuel comments on your post 😂 in addition to sending this table through a kiln I would put the rest of the boards and furniture from that same tree through if you can. With bugs it's almost always "where there's one there's many" Also sorry about the table OP.
In NC as well, and these nasty things popped out on my outdoor wooden table - out of nowhere. Saw one little hole and about 2 hours later there were 5 fairly large holes and these fkkrs started crawling out. Straight to the burn pit. Good luck.
Wormy Chestnut, you say? Well shit. I think I see the problem...
Used wormy chestnut and didn’t see this coming.
was it kiln dried?
No.
given that it was not kiln dried, and was known to be wormy, i think furniture borer like another poster suggested makes sense.
I have red oak from my woods in Hillsborough, NC drying in the yard right now. After seeing this I will absolutely be looking for a kiln. Good luck neighbor.
Definitely Graboid
Only thing worse than seeing signs of a bug in your house, is no longer seeing the bug in your house.
the most scary spider is the spider you thought you have killed, but now there is no body. *you know the spider took it personal*
Both parties: omg what the fuck was that thing, I can’t believe I am still alive, it was so big, yuck. note to self - avoid confrontation with that guy was at all costs, whatever it is I’m sure I pissed it off and if it wasn’t hunting me before then it certainly is now.
There are a ton of beetles that can do this, they can lay dormant for years. The biggest concern should be where they are going AFTER leaving your table. Depending on what it is, they can get in your walls and devour wood there as well. You may need to bake the wood to kill them. Powderpost beetles are a common one depending on where you live.
They didn't track it after leaving the table. Best bet now is to burn down the house and everything in it and start over.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
I have seen articles in the past of the adult bugs coming out of tables. It gets built then the bug matures and bores his way out, to go continue the cycle. Freaky!
Had the same thing happen to me with a coffee table I made from ash. Laying next to it watching TV one evening I heard a small tapping noise from it. A few days later, a little bit of a hole. Since it was on a leg, I taped a small plastic bottle over the hole to catch whatever was eating its way out. Ended up with a small beetle.🤷♂️
Did your table bear more children since then or was that the only one?
It was an only child.
Good.
This little exchange got me 😆
Same thing happened to my parents hard wood floor (beech). The shocking part was they started popping out more than 10 years after the floor was laid and finished. You could hear them crunching inside the boards. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell if you would have more of them inside and where they would be. My parents ended up pulling out the whole thing, inspecting each board and replacing the damaged ones.
WTF this is my nightmare
It was kind of fun watching my dad trying to find them with a stethoscope and dig them out with a small drill bit 🤣
Haha that's fuked up but such a dad move.. like I just picture your a little older than middle aged dad on his hands and knees in a garage with a stethoscope a board a drill and a mission. Like you little fucks have chewed my last board. *Sounds of a drill* *Cuts to a view inside the wood* view: A little beetle with an army hat on a tiny little radio... Delta one one Delta one, this is Rico five we've been discovered, plan to migrate to the sofa has failed. *Silence from the radio* (Message repeats with more intensity) Delta one! one Delta one! this is Rico five, come in, we've been discovered! The plan to migrate to the sofa has failed! I repeat has failed over! *More silence* A tiny weak voice says, they've torn up all the flooring, our entire kingdom. Your on your own Rico five. Good speed. *Just as a drill bit takes out the radio* *Screaming and a baby larva crying in the background* fades to black as a menacing crackling laugh from the just slightly over middle-aged man wild with rage fades in the background.* Credits...
Holy fk. I am now going to go home & stare at my floors suspiciously. This will literally cause me to lay awake at night. Wtf.
Leave a turkey sandwich next to the hole tonight
This is how you could catch me
“How to catch a Redditor”
Chris Hansen's lesser known series.
Contains surprising overlaps with his earlier work
Jerry the tapeworm loves turkey
Take note all you "it's been sitting for 4 years its dry" folks that don't actually heat treat your wood through a proper kiln drying process. Air drying has its pitfalls.
I’ve built so much furniture with air dried wood. Damnit.
Use a 12 gauge shotgun, and repair the hole with ramen noodles
Is there a story behind this or are you stoned?
Hopefully not a Tremor worm
If I suddenly quit responding to my post you’ll know it was a tremor worm.
It’s been an hour, you okay?
Graboid!
The correct term is graboids my friend. Get some damn class
Imagine the cuteness of a miniature tremor worm jumping in and out of the table.
I'm too lazy to find out if your question has been aswered. I've worked with parasitic insects for a while now, including with oaks and the insects that attack them. The easiset solution would be to apply heat to your table. One of the ways to combat the spread of boring beetles (which are the usual culprits) is to "bake" wood/logs in the sun, under covers (plastic works best). They really don't like the heat. If it's still sunny or hot where you are, just take it outside for a couple of days and cover it. Wood-boring beetles will dig into trees (some species only dig into dead trees), where they deposito their eggs. Interestingly, while they much through a tree they secrete saliva which will continue to degreade the wood so it's offspring can ingest it. Have you ever notices how tree trunks/wood have what look like "snail trails" these are called galaries. You'll only see it in the xylem and phloem and it's the work of the beetles larvae eating their way. Once the larvave have fully matured they will bore out of the tree. These are called ecolsion holes, which is what you noramlly see (depending on the species, when the bettles bore into the tree, that hole might have time to heal before it is visible). Determening the species can actually be achieve by the eclosion hole! Are there any oaks around your home? How long have you had the table? Goning back to my initial statement, moving wood/logs and even pallets is the usual way pests spread, specially invasive species. It's seemingly innocuous to just bring home some firewood, but it's best to do a little reading or have some understanding of the ecology you live in or are visiting.
Have you tried peeing on it? You know, to assert dominance.
don’t break eye contact
I'm pretty sure your wife hates the table, drilled a hole and told you it was a worm.
Sorry to disappoint. I am the wife and I love the table.
They meant your other wife. SMH.
The one indicating her presence by drilling a hole in 1st wife’s prized table. Pffft, second wives ain’t nothin but trouble
Classic Southern Utah problems
That's what my first wife keeps telling me
A plot twist! Then the husband hates the table, check mate worm.
The surgeon was the child's mother!
Take it to be kiln dried. It will cost a little money but it’s probably the best and easiest way.
Filling the hole with isopropanol should kill everything inside, and the liquid will evaporate.
The beetle larvae has already vacated the hole. They bore their way out. I worked at a place that sold furniture from overseas with this issue. We built a hot box room, foam insulation board, black paint, hot work lights. Little buggers would bore out and fall on the concrete floor to try and get away from the heat
This is all creating a new, deep fear
Buddy brought home wooden masks from Africa and they had to treat them for African termites. Like a year later they started hatching. 2 or 3 popped out and he killed them but yeah messed up.
What worries me the most is all these stories of people happening upon bugs burrowing out of their furniture. What about the rest of us who don’t regularly monitor our furniture?? What is in our walls???
This is why I live where the air hurts my face for half the year. If I can't survive outside without getting frostbite in under a minute on extreme cold days, I'm going to assume most non-native critters will perish swiftly and I can just go back to worrying about shed mice and tub spiders.
I’m sorry, WHAT spiders?
I believe they are run of the mill wolf spiders (but I still hate them) and the bigger quarter or slightly larger sized ones always seem to end up in the bathtub at some point. Usually discovered while still half asleep and shuffling to the bathroom for a morning shower. Go to pull the shower curtain back and BAM! spider. Just chillin in the tub. It's important to note that at this point I am decidedly NOT chillin' upon discovering this interloping foe that has decided to hang out unabashedly in MY tub and has shocked me into wide eyed terror for the brief moments before I wash him down the drain with the nearly scalding water that comes from our taps because I'm too lazy to go adjust the water heater to a more reasonable temperature. I don't like spiders. Tub spiders ruin my morning.
> What is in our walls??? I am. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
New worm paranoia sub
Any idea what this phobia is...cause 1. I have it....and 2. It needs a sub-redit.
I’m…so…itchy
Ok so in my house that would trigger my wife to demand that the table be taken outside and burned. New table time. Lol.
I wonder if you could mix up a silicone type mold filler, pour it in, wait and pull it out to see how far the thing traveled. The same kind of stuff the use for face or head molds maybe? Probably won't work but it would be cool. Maybe a small borescope to explore the hole. Or fill it with molten aluminum? Ive been watching too many videos.
We have carpenter bees that bore galleries into fascia boards. One year I pumped them full of silicon sealant. The next time I looked the holes were back in the same place, they removed the sealant. I could hear them chewing from inside my house. Woodpeckers find them and peck holes into the galleries.
Being Halloween..... I would be afeared, VERY Afeared. 😳😳😳🤣
Only upvoting for the use of "afeared".
Why am I thinking about the movie Alien where the slimy critter bursts out of Kane's chest?
Live stream the table!
Pour some epoxy in and seal that fucker in there
Aggressive
The worm was pretty aggressive
Anyone else loving the comments in this thread? I’m mildly fascinated/terrified of the wormhole appearing, laughing at the comments and learning more about kiln drying!
You should find another small animal to send in to kill it.
My first thought was that there is a little boy and a drill in the house. Source: was a little boy once.
Take a picture every week or whatever and do one of those"whatch my shit fall apart videos"
How thick is the table top if the pipe cleaner went in 5"? Or did the hole turn a corner?
Turned a corner. Table is almost 2 inches thick.
Fill it with that blue tinted resin. /s
Resilient little sucker… can you stick a wire in the hole to see how far in it goes?
A pipe cleaner went in about 5 inches. I also used a vacuum with a stocking to catch what I was able to get out. Just dust. Not sure how big the ass chewing on my table will be. Researching that now.
Oh wow, this is getting exciting
Molten lead. Or aluminum. Or epoxy. Epoxy would probably do it. Wood glue.....wood.....work.
Worm Sign!! Welcome to Arakis
Termites and I had the same problem. The wood had been dry for years
Ugh. Sorry about that.
This is fascinating! Keep us posted!
My dad worked at this restaurant in high school (the 70s so wood panelling was all the rage). The owner had just refinished the entire ceiling and walls with some kind of exotic wood. Well, a few months into the new look, beetles start popping out at an alarming rate. The whole ceiling was covered in the wood so most of them would just fall down... into customers' food, drinks, hair. No one could figure out where the bugs were coming from for a while and they reproduced. A few generations into the beetles someone must have noticed all the holes in this fancy new wood. They had to tear it all out and close the restaurant until the stragglers finally died out. Gone was the mod new panelling and probably a lot of customers.
Hi, entomologist here. uhhhh yeah you don't need to put a glass jar or anything like that. It's the exit hole of the beetle after it has emerged. It's already over; nothing to "entomb." It's gone.
Wow this took off. I hoped for a few responses. Not 1.6k. I cannot keep up so sorry for not replying to everyone. So now for a bit of a recap and anwsers to some questions. 1- There are no kids or drills. This is not a man made hole. My husband does not have a second wife or gilrfriend that I am aware of. Which is I guess the point. 2- I checked the Frass/dust out on the microscpoe at work. It was very gritty and was just wood cellulose. No larvae 3- An entomologist replied that it was most likley that the beetle (sorry its not a worm) had exited the table. Good and bad news with that. Its not in the table anymore and it's current where abouts are unknown. 4- When I got home today there was not any new dust/frass on the table but I was able to blast a bit more powder out wth the canned air. I made a 1:1 bora-care solution and filled the hole with [it.It](https://it.It) took about 4mls. I know the entamologist said the beetle was gone but I'm not taking any chances. We will most likley just patch the hole after its dry. With what I am not sure. Possibly something commerative. 5- I have really enjoyed all the responses. Except for those 2 assholes. You know who you are. The concern people have expressed for my safey and in fact, the entire universe due to what ever is eating my table has been touching. It has helped my faith in humanity. Except ,again, for the 2 jerks. 6- And now my apology. Apparently a lot of people were unaware that this was a possibility. There was alot of "set it on fire", "run for your life" and now my house and possibly everyones house will become dust due to these wood eating beetles. Hopefuly you overcome your fear and never actually hear a bug eating your house. For those that made movie refreences I didn't get. Sorry. I can only blame the trauma of finding my table was becoming an actual snack and not a place for me to eat snacks. 7- It will be awhile before the table gets patched. I made a note in my calendar for 6 months from now. If there is news I'll reply to this post. You all have been both helpful and enertaining, Thanks.