Anyone with experience of death watch beetles?

[Hellholehome]

My home needs so much doing to it and I have no money to do it.

The latest (it isn't really new as I had it before and ignored it and it seemed to go away) is a tapping that I think could well me death watch beetle. It sounds like it's probably in the loft which I have no access to as I don't have a long enough ladder. I also think I hear things in the walls though as well. It's an intermittent tapping sound. It's definitely not birds or mice because I know what they sound like.

What do I need to do and do I need to do anything urgently?

Bump.

deathwatch beetle is very rare. I have only seen it once.

Like woodworm, it needs somewhat damp wood, and is seldom seen in modern centrally-heated houses because they are very dry. Perhaps there is a leak in your roof causing the timber to be damp. Modern roof timbers are usually treated during manufacture.

Probably a wood-preservation company could identify and treat it, if they actually employ a knowledgeable expert rather than just unthinkingly spraying chemicals.

there is a British Timber Preservation Association (I may have the name wrong) that might keep a register of qualified timber surveyors. You, or someone else, needs to get up there, find and photograph the holes and droppings, and put samples in a jar. You can poke suspect timber with a flat-ended screwdriver to see if it has been weakened. Don't use anything round or pointed as the marks will be mistaken for insect holes by the next person who looks.

here we are

museumpests.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Deathwatch-Beetle.pdf

See "Food Sources" re damp and rot.

You can spray against rot, but of course the source of water has to be repaired.

Thanks @PigletJohn. I just don't know what else could be making this kind of a noise. There is some evidence of woodworm in the house though I thought it all looked old. The sound and the fact I'm hearing it now as I did last summer makes me pretty sure that's what it is. I could cry. There are a lot of serious issues I have to deal with in my house and I have absolutely no money for it. My house isn't even that old (mid 20th century).

if you see any woodworm damage, hoover away all dust and droppings, and draw round the damage with chalk. Then, if you look again in a year or so, any new damage and droppings will be obvious.

You can get brush-on preservers, but although they will stop new eggs hatching and burrowing into the wood, they do not usually penetrate deep enough to kill existing worm, so you will continue to get new emergence holes until they are all gone. I believe deathwatch can live in the wood for as long as 12 years.

Mortgage survey reports often comment on signs of worm, and the offer will require that it is sprayed. If the house has changed hands in the past 50 years or so I would have thought that would have been done. I don't know when pressure-treated timber became the norm for housebuilding. Rather more recent.

I still think that damp wood due to a roof leak may be the root cause. Do you ever see woodlice in the house? They only eat damp, rotting wood.

I once brought a death watch beetle into my house in some gathered fallen wood. I could hear a tapping sound from the cardboard box, investigated and identified the beetle once found. You would never have heard the noise if you were in another room, and certainly not over any background noise, so I honestly doubt it is one of those, it was about the volume of a fairly loud clock. Apparently they are trying to attract a mate.
Could it be wood expanding and contracting? Wasp nests can also make a sort of clicking/rusting noise - once identified, never forgotten. Or possibly bats?

Hi, i had (have) deathwatch beetle and ‘ordinary’ woodworm in the loft. It has been there a while apparently due to leaks which are now fixed. At some point the previous owner replaced the whole roof and used some of the wood for the mantle - the piece of wood has smaller holes in which are woodworm and larger ones which are deathwatch - i will photo it for you if you want? The party wall surveyor (also an old house specialist) acting for next door identified it.

ANyway it was first spotted in my loft by a woodworm company. I paid for them to treat it (that was about £600 i think, i found an independent company with good reviews) but the surveyor said that it didnt need treating (great!) as long as the wood is dry. A small part of a damaged beam does need replacing and then, fingers crossed, that will be it!

Also, as Lucisky says, I couldnt hear them at all - even in the night with the wood in the loft right above me

Actually, and i hate to say this, i did used to hear tapping sounds in walls and it turned out to be rats coming in to the cavity walls from a broken drain next door. Sorry I’m sure you didn’t want to hear that! It was sorted quickly though - got a pest controller out (again good reviews) who got a ‘rat flap’ installed in sewer and nothing since.

Apologies that all sounds scary and probably it is none of these things, but i would get a pest control person to check out the loft first just in case.

Lucisky - Your beetle in a cardboard box might not have sounded very loud, but the tapping reverberates throughout the roof beams or ceiling joists and is surprisingly loud, especially in the dead of night which is when they do it.

Thanks for the comments.

It's not rats or any other animal. The tapping sounds are far too regular. There's no scratching about. It happens in the night and early morning. My house is very quiet. I have good hearing and wake at the slightest sound but this is quite loud anyway. As PP said, it does reverberate.

There is actually a woodworm type hole in my ceiling above my bed that's been there as long as I've been here (3 years). The other holes I've seen are in skirting where the paint has peeled.

I will see if I can record it tonight.

My parents had deathwatch beetle. The tapping kept my step brother awake at night.
They put tissue paper over the holes in the beams. New holes in the paper meant an active infestation. But if you can't see the timber in question, best get specialists in at PigletJohn suggests.

OOI, if you hear a regular tapping at night or in the early morning, get up and run a gallon or so from both the hot and cold bathroom taps and flush all WCs.

Water pressure is higher at night, and also, when no water has been used for some hours, tanks and cistern overflow pipes are most prone to drip.

If it is water drip, it will stop within a couple of minutes, and not come back for (usually) several hours.

Glad to hear it's not rats (thank god they've gone from round here, gross) or animals.

Here's a deathwatch beetle [[http://www.arkive.org/death-watch-beetle/xestobium-rufovillosum/video-09a.html tapping
]]

We've got an historic deathwatch beetle issue - the roof leaked when we moved in 10 years ago and there was an active infestation. We've fixed the roof and installed central heating so the timber is now all too dry for them to breed, but they can remain in larval stage for 10 years at least so every summer a fresh batch emerge and tap for a few days before dying off.

We were advised by a lovely old man who'd been in pest control for years not to treat the timber as nothing can penetrate as deep as they burrow anyway. He said, concentrate on drying the house out so they can't breed, and use a UV light type fly trap in areas where you know they are emerging. We've got a battery operated one in the loft area which this thread has reminded me I should go and check!

So sorry you have this, OP. I think you're right about it being deathwatch beetle. We had the same in a house in France. I recognise your description of the tapping sound. We also noticed the fine sawdust that would fall from the holes the beetles left. As it was a holiday home it was empty for weeks and whenever we arrived we had to hoover all the beds because they were covered in the sawdust. Not that we could sleep listening to that tapping sound, it freaked me out.

We bought some stuff (sorry, can't remember what it was called) and injected it into all the tiny holes and every bit of exposed wood we could find (lots of old beams everywhere, it took ages). Then we sold the house.