Common Furniture Beetle

The Common Furniture Beetle (Anobium punctatum).

common furniture beetle is the everyday name given to the insect which de Geer called Annobium punctatum in 1774. The common furniture beetle belongs to the family ANOBIIDAE which contains about twenty two different species found in Britain.

The adult beetle varies in size from 2.5 mm to nearly 4.5 mm in length and is usually chocolate brown in colour. All are covered with fine yellowish down which does not however hide the longitudinal rows of punctures or small pits on the eleytra or wing cases.

They lay from twenty to sixty eggs are laid by each fertilized common furniture beetle female. The maximum possible is about eighty but the average is about 28 eggs. They are laid usually in small groups in cracks of unpolished wood, but sometimes they may be found just inside the old flight holes. In shape they are they are like oval pearls, but they are often pushed a little out of shape when being forced into crevices during egg depostion they are easily seen with the naked eye.

The young larva emerge in two or three weeks time, not from the top of the egg but from the base and immediately commence to tunnel their way into the wood. The larval stage is spent entirely in the wood and extends for not less than two year, the average length of the larval stage proberly being between three and four years: periods of five or even more are not uncommon.

The common furniture beetle larva are greyish-white in colour and covered with fine hairs. The head is yellowish-brown, but the jaws are dark chesnut-brown. It usually holds its body in a hook shape when in the tunnel or tightly curved into a ball when it is brought out of the tunnel into the light.

This is the most common form of woodworm that Verminate treat.

The larvae spend the whole of this stage tunnelling mostly up and down the grain, but often crossing into a different growth ring. Tunneling takes place in cold weather as well as in the summer, although at a decreased rate, and after tunneling the larva withdraws a short distance from the working face for an hour or two before commencing operations. The tunnel which is left behind is loosely filled with bore dust or powder which is known as frass, the powder when rubbed together is gritty.

In the early spring of the year in which the larva matures, it bores towards the outside of the wood, but just short of the actual surface it constructs a pupal chamber slightly larger than the diameter of the gallery and changes into a pupa or a chrysalis. The pupa is creamy white in colour and in many ways resembles the adult common furniture beetle. All the legs,wing cases, antenna,etc, can be seen plainly, but are held in place by the thin transparent pupal skin. It can move only the last few segments of the abdomen, but in about six to eight weeks the pupal skin is burst off and the adult body form appears.

Although the adult stage has at last been reached a period is spent resting whilst the exo skeleton hardens and it turns into the characteristic brown colour. Then the beetle bites its way out into the open air and the hole it makes, which averages 1- 2 mm in diameter, is termed the fight hole.

The adult beetle stage extends over two to three weeks only. During this time mating takes place and sometimes within a few hours of emergence and then the female lays her eggs.

Common Furniture Beetle survey

What is a common furniture beetle treatment, this is the way that we treat your particular problem. We have different solutions to treat the many types of wood boring insect that can live in our houses or garages. The pre treatment starts with a survey from there we can suggest the best common furniture beetle treatment with the right products and methods to remove the common furniture beetle from your house, garage, loft, joists, loft timbers, stairs, furniture. Plus free 30 year Guarantee.

Where would I find the Common Furniture Beetle?

The common furniture beetle lays its eggs on the timber and the grubs cause the damage. Damp timber is especially at risk, floorboards, old furniture where the varnish has worn off.

More on woodworm and treatments

The common furniture beetle is found in lofts, attics and damp basements on joists and ceiling timbers. If the infestation is heavy it will be in the floorboards.

This beetle prefers softwood species of timber, they generally prefer damp pine woods.

What is Woodworm? information on woodworm beetles and advice on determining woodworm infestations.
Woodworm Lifecycle from larve to adult, the importance of fast treatment to limit damage
Woodworm Tips & Treatments help and advice and how to treatwoodworm including preventitve measures

Common furniture beetle suspected? Contact Verminate for free impartial advice.