Active woodworm discovered

[Askmeafterchristmas]

So I'm currently mid-miscarriage and our horribly timed professional floor sanding is taking place. We ripped up carpets and found woodworm in both downstairs rooms and in the cupboard under the stairs. Only the bottom stair is affected thankfully and the back of the stairs look fine. We've found dead woodworms and little bits of sawdust so unfortunately it does seem to be active.

I'm in a panic as to what to do. DH is very calm and I don't know if my panic is disproportinate or if he's not taking the risk seriously.

A guy from rentokil came yesterday but he seemed pretty clueless and suggested just painting on a few coats insecticide, which he referred to as "a full day's work" .. which we're quite capable of doing and will do today. The subfloor is concrete and the boards are just sitting on top so there's no joists to immediately worry about, but..

Our 3 bedrooms upstairs is still entirely carpetted. I had a peek in a corner of our bedroom yesterday and there is woodworm damage there too. We haven't got the ££££ to sand upstairs too, but could do in a few months. Or is there another way to monitor it? Our house is from 1910ish so I did expect old woodworm damage.

Can you claim on insurance

Im sorry about your miscarriage.
Paint both sides of the stairs with woodworm treatment, paint the floor thats been sanded and lift the carpets upstairs and paint those floors. You dont have to sand them now and you can still sand them later. Woodworm is really common and in the past most houses had it and remained standing. Its amazing how many holes can be in a beam thats still holding a roof up and does so for many many years.
Try and keep the house nice and toasty all winter as they hate heat. I also recommend checking the backs of furniture and painting the backs with something like 5*. You can fill holes with wax (you can buy furniture wax sticks) and then monitor if there are any new holes

If you can paint the woodworm killer on any affected wood over the winter then you should get on top of it. It stinks but it works. They hatch in the spring time March/April onwards and you might see little black beetles in the windows and on the walls. If you do then they’re still active and need to repeat the woodworm killer before they hatch again the following year. Maybe do it a couple of times just to be sure.