Wood Eating Insects Aboard

[rover88]

Our '71 Bristol 34 appears to have termintes. There a a few small spots on an interior rail and several on the nav table. Nobody at the Marina has ever heard of this, but there's no doubt something is munching my wood.

Anyone have a similar problem or any ideas? Thanks

[Pelagic]

Common in the Tropics but you even find them getting into a newbuild Feadship built in Holland if wood is not pretreated before construction.

The first step is to see if you can find a match based on the borings (residue) left behind.

There are many types of wood borer insects so you should type that into google and you will get lots of info on the various types like this:

http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suff...%20Beetles.pdf

Failing that ask a fumigator to take a look at it and quote as it will only get worse.

methol Bromide was the cure all before but it is banned in the US now

The really nasty products should be profesionaly applied




Good luck!

[sneuman]

Ditto Pelagic. I had to replace whole bulkheads on my 28' Taipan sloop in Hong Kong due to termite damage. The buggers ate right up to the plywood veneer. Apparently when they go to the annual "flying queen" breeding mode is when they find an open dorade or something and get in.

[Hudson Force]

In 1987 we discovered a colony of "dry wood" termites in our aft cabin. The pest control company we called, terminex, was accustomed to tenting houses, but I found it quite simple to seal my boat above the waterline with foam plugs or tape and plastic sheeting. They applied their chemicals. We stayed off the boat for a while & all was solved. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

[cptnandy]

I am in the middle of a compleat rebuild of my boat due to termite dammage.
I'd suglest you test the boat today!

[Martinini]

If you are seeing small holes in the wood it is probably something like powder post beatles and the eggs could have been present in the wood for years before hatching. In any case removing the affected wood is going to probably be the cheapest way out as long as those are the only areas. How close to the Nav station is the rail? If it is close infestation is probably localized. If termites are present somewhere close to the affected area there will be a hole with an acculimation of what looks like course sawdust directly below it. This would be thier trash dump consisting of fecal pellets, bits of dead insects and wood. Also using a good Polyurthane painted on will prevent or at the very least discourage infestations of this type. Before I retired they had just come out with insecticidal polyurathanes. There is also a product called Timbor which is a borate salt that can be sprayed or painted on and than finish of choice put on over it. Works as deterrant, anything munching on treated wood dies. Item is not restricted and can be found at places like feed stores or farm supply stores. Comments like the little b-----ds are in my barn stalls generally get you what you want quickly.

[Martinini]

More info------Drywood termites generally have small colonies(a few hundred members instead of a few hundred thousand) so removing the infested wood generally eliminates the problem. easy to find the area involved by trying to stick an ice pick into area, ice pick penetrates(bad) no penetration (good) just be through. Also don't fall for scare tactics from exterminators. Like they are going to eat everything in a couple of months, so you have time to shop around for the best deal. And that doesn't necessarly mean cheapest! Hope this helps a little.