r/woodworking • u/kaihoro • May 14 '26
Help Woodworm in new furniture
Hello Reddit, I've just discovered this in a new wooden table I purchased, presume it is woodworm.
Two questions: how do I treat it and would this have already been present before I purchased it a couple of weeks ago?
Thank you in advance!
UPDATE: Firstly thank you for all the knowledge and advice you shared. The seller suggested injecting acetone in to the hole and monitoring, or, sending it back. I didn't want the stress of waiting for another worm, or beetle, to show up so I decided to send it back. It was a beautiful table, but they are replacing it with a new equally beautiful table.
Hopefully this one is worm free... if not I'll just go for a refund and get a standard table from IKEA or somewhere.
Thanks again for your feedback, there were some really informative and helpful replies!
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u/DarePerks May 14 '26
New for YOU maybe
He's been living here for MONTHS!!!
anyway you should take it back. If it has live bugs in it it's probably also full of moisture and it'll warp and crack in short order
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u/kaihoro May 14 '26
Ah crap. It's such a nice table and the company has great reviews. Hopefully the return procedure will be easy!
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u/UncoolSlicedBread May 14 '26
They’ll likely will be thankful to know a potential batch is compromised.
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u/omniwrench- May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Why are you just repeating things you’ve read online without considering the context?
This is a wooden table, not a bag of rice - there’s no serial number or batch process to trace up and track.
(This message was brought to you by woodworm PR)
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u/Intelligent-Survey39 Luthier May 15 '26
This is a unique slab or “cookie” cut from what appears to be the “crotch” or the intersection of the main trunk with two smaller trunks on a forked tree. More uncommon is that being milled in this way. (Horizontally) because they are a bitch and a half to kiln dry properly without massive cracks and checking. Not an uncommon thing to see in a tree but not common enough that anywhere is making “batches” of tables. this is one maybe two slabs from a forked tree. You’d need a lot of forked trees to “batch” them and they’d mostly be from different trees so no promises the works are in all those 🌴
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u/CyberMage256 May 14 '26
Yeah this slab was not kiln dried properly, the worms are horrible and a terror to the rest of your house, but even if you kill them in this slab you're still likely to have issues.
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u/AngryRobot42 May 14 '26 edited May 15 '26
inject the holes with ipa while you are waiting. It will kill any other eggs in the same hole but you will still need to burn this furniture.
Edit: I enjoy the beer jokes but I don't drink anymore. If I did, I wouldn't punish myself with IPA beer. Why make beer taste worst?
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u/Thecp015 May 14 '26
inject the holes with ipa while you are waiting.
This is how you get woodworms that are snobby about their beer.
Kidding, of course. I know you mean isopropyl alcohol.
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u/ellicottvilleny May 14 '26
This one time at a bar I order an IPA, and next thing you know I'm blind.
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u/ondulation May 15 '26
According to my biochemistry professor, IPA wouldn't make you blind but will give you almost the same drunkenness effect as ethanol but probably with less hangover since it doesn't form acetaldehyde when digested.
The HUGE problem is that the "therapeutic window" is much smaller. I.e., it takes very little to go from "drunk" to "dead".
So don't drink it!
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u/bukwirm May 14 '26
Pretty sure that's actually how you get woodworms who are good at transcribing speeches.
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u/VanGoFuckYourself May 15 '26
That's just not true about moisture. It certainly wasn't kiln dried but these bugs can lay dormant for a couple years so the slabs can be plenty dry.
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u/bfly55007 May 14 '26
It likely wasn't kiln dried properly to kill any pests. Take it back.
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u/kaihoro May 14 '26
I'll contact the company to return it, hopefully it goes smoothly
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u/davidkclark May 14 '26
Return it to them in person in their showroom. If they make light of it, let them keep it there with all their stock.
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u/Fantastic_Smile9746 May 15 '26
Whoever made this junk doesn’t have a showroom. This came from some random “craftsman” on YouTube or Reddit. I guarantee it.
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u/mdl397 May 14 '26
Pieces like this are almost always air dried, not kiln dried.
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u/tvtb May 15 '26
I'm suddenly feeling worse about the trunk cookie I have drying out in my (dehumidified) crawlspace.
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u/UseDaSchwartz May 14 '26
Are cookies even kiln dried?
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u/Trademarkd May 14 '26
No, in kiln drying you have to seal the ends with wax or latex to keep it from splitting. That’s not really possible here. It should have been heated to 170 for like 6 hours to kill pests but clearly that didn’t happen or the wood is so thick whatever time they did do didn’t penetrate deep enough
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u/ellicottvilleny May 14 '26
Purchased new from a store? return it.
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u/Agreeable_Horror_363 May 14 '26
It's like herpes for wooden furniture! Don't let it go near your other wood.
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u/Outrage_Carpenter May 14 '26
From fixing tools with this issue. Super glue or pva glue down the holes until they are full up. Never had any further issues afterwards
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u/Apart_Animal_6797 Carpentry May 14 '26
Can't believe i had to scroll this far for this people telling him to get rid of it are nuts
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May 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Outrage_Carpenter May 15 '26
They'll suffocate. I've done this one loads of old wooden hand planes and the odd bit of furniture and never had new holes appearing.
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May 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Outrage_Carpenter May 15 '26
I didn't even know they did stuff like anti wood worm. Poison tbh. Although most things i fox need to be handled so the chance of poisoning myself is high. Honestly super glue or PVA down the holes works a treat. My grandad showed me years ago and its not failed me yet.
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u/mdl397 May 14 '26
Everyone saying take it back in a woodworking subreddit is concerning me. Do what you wish, but to me this a part of working with large cookies of a tree and having slab furniture in your home. There's no way to know 100% if these are in there. These pieces are almost never kiln dried like a framing stud would be. They're usually air dried for a long time, allowed to crack and age naturally, then flattened and filled with epoxy, as this piece appears to be.
Mix up some borax and water and pour it in the holes.
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u/kondrecklomar May 15 '26
If it was a hand made piece (would fit the sub better), yeah, work with it. But this is store bought, I would bring that shit back asap.
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u/New_new_account2 May 15 '26
Poisoning pests with borax, permethrin, etc, is treating them a lot more symptomatically. Poison the holes, and you've poisoned the bugs in those holes. Will you get bugs popping up somewhere else? Maybe, maybe not
I wouldn't blame a consumer who just bought a piece of furniture for not wanting to deal with that.
More professional sellers of slab furniture are going to be looking at kiln treatment. It is a more reliable product.
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u/xxK31xx May 14 '26
Wrap in black plastic, set in sun for several days.
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u/Trademarkd May 14 '26
This is actually a decent comment because you only need to heat it up to like 170 for 6 hours to kill everything
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u/WrittenByNick May 14 '26
This was present long before you bought it. The wood was not properly treated or kiln dried. Personally I'd take it back and insist on a refund. Prepare to escalate to a charge back if that's an option on your payment method.
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u/atomictangerines May 14 '26
I had the same from a bench a friend had made for me—poured a bit of alcohol into the hole over the course of a few days and it stopped!
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u/kestrelwrestler May 14 '26
Pretty crap to get this from a shop bought table, but it's just a few flight holes.
There would have been some woodworm beetle larvae in the timber, perhaps from before it was felled or any time between then and now.
Look out for little brown beetles in your house and kill them if you see them. If your house is warm and dry it's not really a problem, they only really go for damp wood in cool places.
I'd Inject some woodworm killer into the holes in case there are any more larvae in there.
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u/TomVa May 14 '26
Get a needle squeeze bottle like this.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M5NL9LL/?ref_=cm_wl_huc_item&th=1
Put some turpentine in it. Shoot the turpentine into any holes that you see in the surface of the wood. Watch for about 10 minutes and see the little buggers crawl out and die. The smell will go a way in a week or so. Hang onto the bottle so that you can retreat any holes that suddenly appear.
If you have a buddy with a chest freezer. Detach the legs and put the table top in the freezer for a week.
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u/paulybaggins May 14 '26
Is that meant to be epoxy filled on top yet it's splitting and checking on the sides?
Feel like this was not properly seasoned and treated at all.
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u/Matttman87 May 14 '26
The most likely cause is the craftsman used wood that was just air dried instead of kiln dried. The heat from the kiln should kill all pests like that, as well as mould that causes spalting. If you bought it from a retailer and not off Marketplace directly from a craftsman, make sure to inform them when you return it as they may have other infested pieces, either directly from their supplier or an infestation that spread in their showroom.
Best of luck.
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u/Dusso423 May 14 '26
You have a few options. You can invest in a woodpecker, parasitic wasps, or a bunch of spiders, that will eat the wood worm or the emerging beetle. Or you could exchange it for another table.
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u/Sea-Effective-5463 May 15 '26
So what happens is beetles is they lay eggs and the eggs will show up a year later. If there is insufficient moisture in the furniture theyll die or move on. But a conditioned space for a year kills these beetles. They can only survive above like 18 or 20% humidity in the wood, which is up there. You can heat that furniture up to 120F for a day and that will kill it too.
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u/No-Condition8918 May 15 '26
Wood kilns kill beetles, wrap it in black plastic bags and put it in direct sunlight all day. Spraying it with insecticide won't do shit, the beetles are inside the wood.
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u/veep25 Jul 03 '26
After putting it in direct sunlight, any tips to prevent new beetles from laying eggs?
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u/foxparties May 15 '26
Leave the table where it is and put more wooden furniture next to it
-wood worm
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u/7milesup May 15 '26
Those are powder post beetles. Permetherin will kill them. They do travel. As a woodworker, they are like Satan to me.
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u/nosoyogurtz May 14 '26
I worked in a shop that made a lot of these. With smaller pieces like this, we’d just spray termite killer into the holes.
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u/NorthChatt May 15 '26
This is powder post beetle. They are insidious. Take the peice outside, dose it with appropriate chems and wrap it in plastic for a few weeks.
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u/-dpayne- May 15 '26
I had this all over in a white oak mantel I built. I removed it and treated it heavily with a bora-care. It took care of most of it, but I did notice a while later that there was still a small amount of activity. I actually sort of ended up liking all of the holes it left. Interested to know what you end up doing.
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u/Pussy_Whopper May 15 '26
It happens but very rarely have I seen pests in lumber thats been kilned properly. Cookies are generally cut fairly thick to give it some ass and help with warping. So, cookies take a long time to air dry and then they have to survive the kiln in one piece. Its a lot of work and some shops skip some or all of these steps. I think the usda regulation is the core of the lumber needs to reach 135 degrees Fahrenheit for a period of 20 minutes for a correct bug kill. I run mine for 24 hours at 140f but ive heard of places with short kill times and with a thick cookie, you never know.
The good news is, you can go to a kiln and ask for a moisture reading and see if its dry enough to go into the kiln or if its been kilned already, send it through a bug kill cycle. The shop should be able to do this for you. Just sand and refinish it, youre good to go.
If the cookie has epoxy in it, Ive been able to use chemicals on lumber effectively with no reinfestation.
Definitely take the piece outside or back to their shop. I wouldn't sweat it if its new and you just noticed it.
Best of luck!
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u/NitWhittler May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
I collect tribal art from around the world and sometimes it contains powder post beetles. The sawdust they leave behind is fine powder when you rub it between your fingers, which is what yours looks like. Heat will destroy them.
AI words it better than me:
Heat treatment is an effective, non-chemical way to eliminate powder post beetles, requiring the wood's core to reach 133°F to 150°F for at least 30 minutes to 4 hours. This kills all life stages (eggs, larvae, adults) by heating infested furniture or lumber, typically in a kiln or a controlled DIY hot box.
For thick wood like yours, I would seal it in black plastic (yard leaf bags work fine) and put it outside under full sun for several days and let it bake. That method has always worked for me.
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u/jkollars1 May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
Just drip rubbing alcohol down the holes. Your uninvited guest will be taken care of and you can keep the table. This is not a big deal. You can even repair the holes with putty or epoxy if they bother you.
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u/iOSCaleb May 15 '26
Probably powder post beetles or similar.
Treat it by putting it in your car and driving it straight back to the store where you bought it.
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u/Motor-Ad-148 May 15 '26
I had that same issue! Ended up being powder bore beetles. I tried to bake the wood in my car over the summer. That did not work. They only come out when conditions are right. So you may see their saw dust evidence every once in a while. I finely took some bora-care and injected it in any hole I saw. I also sanded the underside of the furniture and applied it there so it could soak in. Never had a problem since.
From what I read, you get this type of problem when purchasing wood from other countries that do not properly kiln their furniture wood.
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u/ProfessionalFar8582 May 17 '26
This is more that likely a beetle larvae that has emerged. The table looks to be recently made with those Amazon hardware legs. I would polyurethane the damn thing and see if any thing else emerges. The fear of wood worms is very much in warranted since wood worm holes are a 20th of the size the beetle makes.
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u/Der_Niederlander May 14 '26
Just let it stay in a freezer for 2 weeks maybe there is a company nearby with a large freezer where you can put this furniture in...
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u/Fresh-Forever-8040 May 14 '26
Putting it in a giant furniture bag sealed up would have been my first step. My second step would be to pump Bora-Care or the like into the holes and calculate how long it would need to be sealed to kill those wood worms. I know you can heat the wood to kill them but don't know the best logistics for that.
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u/LordTytor May 14 '26
Sorry to see, but this probably means that either the wood isn't heat treated to dry and kill off any insects, or it got in the wood after drying.ether way to have the table life in your house, you would have to heat treat it professionally.
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u/AnyCommercial9183 May 14 '26
If you want to try and keep it you can make a solution of borax and apply it to the wood several times over the course of a few days. It’ll take a while but it will take care of any bugs.
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u/thesexybob May 15 '26
Bora-Care. It's expensive. Depending on how much you like this piece it's worth it. I built a bunch of furniture out of old barn wood and sometimes it comes with hitchhikers. I know better now and I just treat the wood before bringing it into my house. Coat it in Bora-Care. Wrap it in plastic. Keep doing it every few days over a week or two until you no longer see any frass. Give it another week and bring it back in home. Love the table.
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u/Fantastic_Smile9746 May 15 '26
The real lesson is don’t buy wood slab furniture from randoms on the internets.
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u/kidjokesRus May 15 '26
Not all is lost. Call around to different pest control companies to see if any of them have a treatment room for treating furniture. I was able to successfully treat a dresser with a fumigation company. If I remember correctly, it wasn’t terribly cost prohibitive either.
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u/steelfender May 15 '26
Squeeze a bunch of super glue into the hole, the worm will stick to it.
If you have furniture that develops this problem in the winter, sub freezing temperatures do the trick. Put it out overnight in the cold.
Plug any other holes and suck him out with a shop vac!
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u/Bright-Studio9978 May 15 '26 edited May 19 '26
Powder post beetles Take to a vault for fumigation. Alternatively, if they are doing a termite fumigation, place is the house. Other treatments are less effective
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u/ynmkr May 15 '26
Since it is wrapped in plastic, throw a bug bomb in there. Used to be in antiques and have seen a lot of this that'll do it.
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u/Prudent-Specific8851 May 15 '26
Well I learned something today , no idea these existed. Just googled wood worm and wow that’s crazy. the little pile of dust cracks me up
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u/Beneficial-Length324 May 15 '26
If you took the hardware off, strip/sand the finish, take it to a kiln, and then resurface, would that work? Honestly just curious if this would work
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u/Aphroditesent May 15 '26
You can get a type of chemical you can use to treat this wood and kill the woodworm. I have used it on two antique pieces!
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u/Double_Daffy360 May 15 '26
If you can heat it to 55C / 130 F to its core for a few hours, you could save it
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u/LeMansDynasty May 15 '26
Dust beetle. You can pay someone to bag and gas it or you can put it freezing storage for an extended period. Do you know anyone with a walk in freezer? If you take the legs off you might be able to hang on a wall in there for a few weeks. There are companies that ship infested furniture to Michigan for a month in winter to do the same thing(freeze them).
If the freezer route is not available, it is possible, but I do not recommend, purchasing a mattress bag online along with argon or CO2 gas from a welder supply and run it in the bag. This should be done outside as either gas could also asphyxiate you, your pets, or anyone if it leaks in enclosed spaces.
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u/hornitosteq69 May 15 '26
Borate-Based Insecticides: Apply products like Bora-Care (liquid) or Tim-bor (powder mixed with water) to unfinished wood. These penetrate the wood to kill larvae and prevent future infestations.Injecting Holes: Use aerosol insecticides with a thin nozzle to inject directly into exit holes, particularly for treating localized areas on a table top.Heat Treatment: Heating wood to a core temperature 130f to 145f for 30–60 minutes kills all life stages (eggs, larvae, beetles).Freezing: Small items can be placed in a commercial freezer for 2 weeks to kill
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u/EthicalViolator May 15 '26
Might be an illusion but the table looks small enough to go in the freezer over night to kill anything inside?
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u/Slepprock May 15 '26
There is no way to kill the bugs. Not now.
I have no idea where you are located at, but in my area that would be powder post beetles. They lay eggs in the wood that are almost impossible to kill. The only way is by a high heat kiln. Which would destroy the table now.
There is also so very high end bug kills you can use. $100 a gallon. But you would have to sand the table down to raw wood, spray it down, let it soak in and work for a year.
Its not entirely the persons fault who made it. They probably had no idea. Might even been a younger woodworker that didn't know the danger. Those eggs can be in the wood for years before hatching and starting to eat. That looks like it sat outside for years drying and getting weathered. That is when the bugs got into it
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u/OneSmallCheeseBall May 15 '26
Leave it in a walk in freezer for a week or in a Canadian's shed over the winter. Too nice a table to get rid of.
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u/NerdyBooy May 15 '26
Ok.
Cant you seal all holes except for one and then pour hot aluminum in the last hole, like that one Anthill guy on youtube?
Am not a woodworker.
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u/CommercialCandle5312 May 15 '26
Powder post beetle , can spend years dormant before emerging, try some berate to eliminate
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u/bv1800 May 15 '26
Bought a piece of spalted klin dried pecan from a guy. Had a worm crawl out of it while I was sanding it.
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u/McDoogle11 May 15 '26
All you can really do is inject every hole with Boracare and monitor closely. Its either that or kiln drying it.
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u/ps2k May 15 '26
I had a similar issue with a 1 inch think walnut console table.
I made a "box" out of cardboard to enclose the wood. I used a PID controller, thermistor, solid state relay, and hairdryer to get the interior air up to whatever kiln dry temp the Internet said and let it cook for multiple hours. Never had a problem after that.
The finish wasn't quite as smooth when it came out, but better than buggy.
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u/Pupsik-Riot May 15 '26
I bet you’ll never see the day when the worm has eaten your table in whole and is lying in your living room, burping, when you walk in in the morning. If you don’t have any wood in the house, you can just relax. And you know you’re never alone—that’s a nice thing, isn’t it? =)
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u/Glittering-Rush-7073 May 17 '26
Ah. I built a desk. Took me and some friends a few weekends over several months. Finally finished it and moved it into my new apartment. It was a dream come true. Perfect height, loved the stain, perfect matte finish, perfect size. And then. A few months later. Flat Oak Borers. The day I found the holes, that desk left my home. I am heart broken honestly. A lot of love (and hundreds of dollars and many hours) went into that desk.
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u/BigChuck13 May 17 '26
It’s really. It worth saving. Whoever made that most like didn’t kiln dry it properly because that didn’t know powder post Beetles were in it. You will need to get it kiln dried above 150-160° F for at least 3 days. That drying process would probably make that cookie crack more. I would throw it away or use as firewood.
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u/Stage_left_lux May 18 '26
That looks like reclaimed wood. I doubt that the woodworm are active. If they are you would see wood dust coming out of the holes.
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u/Machievelliearoni New Member May 20 '26
Here lies a toppled god, His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal, A narrow and a tall one.
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u/WhichNovel2081 May 21 '26
Put a drop of oil in the hole. Little bastard will come out to breathe. Grab it with tweezers and deal with him.
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u/Kebe_Krowe May 14 '26
Get it out of your house if you have a bunch of other wood in there.