When you’ve spent a substantial amount of time, painting, staining, and repairing your garden fence, and you’ve put in a large amount of effort over the summer to maintain your fence, and keep it in good condition, then it can be disheartening to discover that woodworm has set into the fence, and has been busy eating the wooden posts. So now a fence, where you’ve spent a lot of time, painting it, may need to replaced.
Recognising that word worm has set in is important, because what the word worm will do, is weaken the fence, so during say strong winds, this when a fence with wood worm may collapse, so its important to make sure that the wood word is eradicated. If this is not possible, then the section of fencing with wood worm should be replaced.
So, let’s kick off with some easy-to-spot red flags.
How to recognise if woodworm has starting eating away at your garden fence
Detecting woodworms can be quite a challenge, because there not an insect that covers the outside of the wood, like say ants would if you left a boiled sweet in the garden. That’s to say, if you left food in the garden, during the summer, then it might get covered in ants, however with word worm, then eat the wood from inside, you can sometimes see them on the surface, yet this is rare.
The prime time to catch a glimpse of these wood eating insects is between March and September, also known as the ‘flight season’. During this period, the wood worm is most likely to burrow out of the wood in a quest for a mate.
If you’re worried that your garden fence may be getting eaten by wood worm her are few ways of the main ways of knowing if wood worm is eating away at your garden fence.
Entrance/exit holes appear on the wooden posts or the main wooden fence – these are a tell-tale sign that wood worm has been busy eating your fence, is if there are a lot of very small holes in the fence. Sometimes these holes are so small you would be hard pressed to spot them, and generally what we find is that the wood worm spreads from the bottom of the fence to the top. Normally when the woodworm has reached the top, the bottom of the fence has been eaten so much, that it need replacing before the whole fence falls on the floor. The holes generally vary from 2mm to 5mm in diameter, they are very small holes, where the wood worm have come out of the wood.
Therefore, you’ll need to keep an eye on your garden fence, because the wood worm could spread the whole fence. However, if you notice that word worm is starting eat away at your fence, then if you catch it earlier enough, you just replace that panel, or that wooden post, and that might be enough to stop the word worm from spreading any further.
Frass
Frass is like a dust-like substance, now most builders when they enter an old loft space, will see this on the floor, from wood worm eating away at the wood, and then a lot of this dust can be on the floor.
Frass is left by the woodworms as they tunnel through the wood, and then this dust is what comes out, now indoors it’s much easier to spot, however on a garden fence, its much harder to spot, because the dust, produced by the woodworm, will be blown away.
If you’re wondering what frass looks likes, it’s a light-coloured substance closely resembles fine wood shavings.
Weakened wood
If parts of the garden fence have started to crumble, for example, by just tapping the fence lightly with a screwdriver, that might be enough to damage the wood, and if practically no effort the screw driver might piece the wooden fencing panel. This is a sign that the wood has been eaten by wood worm, probably for a long period of time.
Actual woodworms – occasionally, you might spot dead woodworms on the floor.
If you have a garden fence, and its been built above grass, then its going be very hard to see dead word worms or frass on the ground. However, if the fence has been built above decking, or say a concrete foundation, then you might see dead word worms on the floor, and frass on the floor as well.
When you see any signs of wood worm, what we would recommend is you call a Cardiff fencing company as soon as you can, because otherwise the wood worm might spread, for example you might have spent over 30k on a wooden garden room, you don’t want the wood worm to spread from the fence to say your garden room, or your house.
We can take away the wooden fence that has wood worm and recycle it for you.
How to fix wood worm that’s damaging your garden fence
We would recommend, hiring us to replace that section of fencing. Alternatively you could contact a company that treats wood worm, they might need to repeatedly come to your garden to put a chemical spray treatment on the wood, to help eradicate the woodworms. However, here at Hyden Bros, we can replace the fencing at a low cost, and we can take away your old fence for you.
