Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
Calis Beach Forum => Expat & Property Owners Q and A Forum => Topic started by: marjo on April 13, 2012, 19:38:18 PM
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Hi
Can anyone answer my query please? We live in an oldish (20 years plus) house with a lovely covered front terrace. For a couple of months I have been hearing 'munching' noises from in the inside wooden terrace ceiling (although hubby has heard 'nothing'!). Two weeks ago we found a Red Palm weevil on the terrace floor.:(
We got rid of it, but today I found another, after hearing over the last 2 days louder 'munching' noises!! :(
These beetles are only meant to infest palm trees acording to my internet research but I have inspected our mature palm tree & found nothing & it is some distance from our terrace. Should we be worried & has anyone had a similar experience?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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We have had our property and furniture for 10 years and have heard munching for at least the last 8 years coming from the bamboo furniture and pine chest of drawers and beds. Every year when returning to the property after a couple of months we found piles of sawdust under the furniture. Even after spraying the furniture and injecting insect killer we couldn't stop the munching. Recently a hole the size of a 20p appeared in the leg of the bamboo table and below the table we found a dead centipede type insect that was approx 3inches long and 1inch wide. On the chest of drawers top we could trace the insect tunnel just under the surface of the wood until we caught up with the culprit which was a tiny worm like creature so small that we couldn't believe it could make so much noise eating.
We have also had one palm tree completely destroyed by a large white grub. This is a different type of insect to the ones inside the house.
Having spent 10 years living in the tropics I am used to living with insects and as long as they don't bite me or damage the structure of the house, I can ignore them, although my visitors aren't quite as blase.
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Woodworms and beetles are a rather common problem in Turkey.
Especially the older type wooden floors that were being used were quite often infected with them.
There's a special kind of insecticide that you can use.
Spray it on the wooden surfaces but be careful with painted walls since it leaves ugly spots.
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Woodworm basically a beetle that lays eggs in your furniture, the worm or grub will eat it's way through the furniture for up to 2 years and then fly out as a fully formed beetle, which will eventually look for somewhere else to lay eggs. If furniture is infested in a home the wooden structure of the home can get infected and undermined. If you see little piles of sawdust you have worm, and possible woodworm. IMO I would get rid of the furniture as it's cheaper to do that than get major structural work in you home. I cleared a local house and in the loft saw live worm which had been in a chest of drawers and had moved into the wooden beams in the roof. :o After the house was cleared.I saw workmen in the place for weeks working on all the damage the worm had done.:(
Woodworm can be very serious, don't ignore it. Better to get an expert in to look at the problem.
;)
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Can you recommend anyone Jacqui, as we have it in our roof!
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WD40 or similar, injected directly into the insect's burrow hole using the long plastic nozzle, solves the problem Jo :)
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we had this problem years ago in our wooden floor in one bedroom and used the cockie spray down the holes and one popped up out of the hole so i hit it on the head
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I would ask Engin at Fethiye Property Services. I would not say that just putting WD40 in the holes would solve the problem, but it's better than nothing. I have seen the direct result of woodworm and the costs involved in replacing roof beams, it's not cheap and your household insurance may not pay out if they think you have had a long term infestation and not had it professionally treated.
As most of us know in the U.K. you have to have a survey before selling a house and any signs of woodworm will stop the sale until a certificate is issued saying the worm is either dead or treated.
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Forgive me , but what's "cockie spray" :o
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I would hazzard a guess at cockroach. Us Scousers know what we are talking about!!
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Thank goodness for that ! :-\
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spot on Jacqui :)
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Ok we have inspected every inch of our terrace ceiling but have found no entry/exit holes nor evidence of any sawdust/powder residue nor any beetle activity. So I have to assume that the noise needs further investigation but it is NOT a result of the palm weevils who have posssibly been coincidental. The palm tree will have further investigation tomorrow & if the 'munching' noise reappears (nothing heard today) we will look into the terrace ceiling further-thankfully it is confined to the outside of the house. Thank you for all you info.
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Thanks for the info!