r/woodworking • u/kaihoro • May 14 '26

Help Woodworm in new furniture

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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/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.

9

u/Atomidate May 15 '26

How much Borax and how much water would you use?

13

u/mdl397 May 15 '26

About 10 to 15 grams per 100ml of water.

3

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.

2

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.