Powderpost Beetle Facts & Information

What do powderpost beetles look like? Adult powderpost beetles range from reddish brown to black in color. They are pretty small, slender insects and therefore can be difficult to see and identify. It takes a trained eye to successfully identify them. Powderpost beetle larvae are typically white or cream colored and often recognizable by the C shape they form.

Powderpost beetles breed in dead and dried hardwoods such as the dead branches and limbs of trees. Their presence is overlooked until they are discovered in stored lumber, rafters, joists, finished wood, and furniture products. As a rule, they enter lumber while it is being stored and cured, then later, emerge from the finished product. Old items of furniture and wood antiques are especially vulnerable to attack by the beetles.

Adult beetles deposit eggs in the pores and exit holes of seasoned lumber, usually in the spring. The mature larvae are small, white grubs about 1/5-inch in length. They produce the fine sawdust mentioned previously. The larvae overwinter in the wood and reach their adult stage in spring.

Adult beetles emerge from the wood through small round exit holes. Powderpost beetles prefer the sapwood of oak and other hardwoods and many of the insects will continue to breed in an infested piece of wood for generations. This practice can result in an ultimate destruction of the wood. Powderpost beetle treatments can help if you are seeing them or the larvae around.

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