Common Furniture Beetle

There are many kinds of wood boring insects, but the one most frequently found in this country is the common furniture beetle (Anobium Punctataum). The adult beetle will lay its eggs in cracks and crevices and old flight holes in almost any timber, furniture, flooring, fencing, dead trees etc.

It does seem to have a preference for softwood particularly the sap wood from which floorboards are usually cut. The eggs hatch after several weeks and bore into the timber. This is the larval stage during which most of the damage to the timber will be done, working unseen, inside the timber. The larval period varies according to conditions, and is generally in excess of three years in domestic situations.

The larva turn to pupa near the surface of the timber where it remains for six to eight weeks. The adult emerges as a beetle from a flight hole 1.5 – 2.0mm Ø in the late spring and through the summer. It can grow to around 2.5mm and 5mm and lives for around three to four weeks, during which time it mates and the female lays eggs.