Elalmanya BiologyHomes and businessesSame day, any governorate
The fine powder you find under a wardrobe or on a door sill means a larva is eating the wood from the inside. Paint on the surface doesn't reach it, and old holes on their own don't prove the woodworm is still there. That's why our first step is an inspection.
In short
Woodworm treatment starts with an inspection to see whether the beetles are still active or the holes are old. If so, we inject the tunnels through the holes and treat bare, unvarnished wood. If a piece is weak, we advise replacing it and whatever touches it. We also check for damp, since one type lives in moist wood.
Signs
The clearest sign is fine powder under the holes, but what matters most is whether it's fresh or old. Fresh powder looks like newly cut sawdust, while old powder is yellowed or caked. Take close-up photos of the holes and powder and send them to us, and we'll tell you if it's woodworm, termites or something else.
A small pile of powder under or next to the holes, on the floor under a wardrobe or on a shelf of the china cabinet. Rubbed between your fingers it feels like talcum powder or flour. Another type of wood borer leaves a slightly coarser powder with pellets in it.
Clean, round holes about 1 to 3 mm across, depending on the type. These aren't where the woodworm got in. They're exit holes, left by the adult beetle once it finished feeding inside the wood.
Mark the existing holes with a marker pen and vacuum up the powder. If after a few weeks you find holes without a mark, or a pile of powder has come back, the woodworm is still active inside the piece and needs treatment.
A slender beetle under 6 mm long, reddish brown to black. It moves mostly at night and is drawn to light, so you find it on the window sill or near a lamp, more often in late winter, spring and summer.
In the quiet of the night you may hear faint scratching or ticking inside the wood. That's the sound of large larvae feeding, and you hear it more in spring and summer, when the moisture in the wood goes up.
Found one of these signs? Take a photo and send it to us, and we will tell you whether it is woodworm or something else before any visit.
Send the photoBoth eat wood from the inside, but the treatments are completely different, and a wrong diagnosis means money and time spent on a treatment in the wrong place. You can tell them apart by what each one leaves behind:
Termite treatment depends on where the colony is, and it often starts with the soil around the building. Woodworm is treated in the infested piece itself. If you’re not sure which one you have, photograph the wall, the wood and the powder and send them to us before you buy anything. Our guide to woodworm vs termites has more on telling them apart, and termites have their own termite treatment page.
Woodworm doesn’t walk in from the street the way cockroaches do. It arrives already inside the wood: a secondhand chair or china cabinet, an antique from an old market, a wicker basket or a piece of bamboo, or timber stored somewhere infested before the carpenter worked with it. A piece can look sound for years until the beetles finish developing, come out and leave the first holes.
One type, the powderpost beetle, prefers hardwoods such as oak, walnut and mahogany, and it likes bamboo too. That’s the one we find in furniture, parquet and door frames. Another type, the furniture beetle, likes damp and attacks softwoods like pine as well. It shows up in wooden ceilings, storage lofts and wardrobes standing against a wall with a leak, especially in older houses.
Many people ask whether the weevils in rice and flour are the same as woodworm. They aren’t. That’s a different insect that lives on stored food and doesn’t eat wood, and dealing with it starts in the kitchen cupboard, not with the carpentry.
Not every piece of wood with holes in it has to go. Woodworm eats slowly, so you have time to inspect and decide without panic. Damage limited to one or two pieces, like a parquet board, a door frame or a chair leg, is usually simpler to replace than to treat, provided the pieces touching it are replaced or treated along with it. For a large wardrobe, an original door in an old house or an antique that means something to you, injection makes more sense.
A piece that crumbles when you press it with your finger, or a load-bearing ceiling beam with a lot of holes in it, needs a carpenter to assess its strength before any treatment. The treatment stops the woodworm, but it doesn’t bring back wood that has already been eaten.
If you marked the holes, cleaned up the powder and found new holes or a fresh pile of powder a few weeks later, or if the woodworm is in a ceiling, parquet or a fixed door that’s hard to take apart, it’s time for a professional inspection. Call us too if you aren’t sure whether it’s woodworm or termites, because the difference changes the whole treatment plan. Call or WhatsApp +201007892200, or see the other options on our contact page. Same-day visits are available in any of Egypt’s 27 governorates.
Why it comes back
The beetle you see outside is the final stage. The larva lives inside the wood for months or years, and sprays and paint stop at the surface. Many people also end up treating old holes the woodworm left long ago. The fix is to confirm it's active first, then get the treatment to where the larva actually lives.
Woodworm spends most of its life as a larva, boring tunnels inside the piece. From egg to adult beetle can take anywhere from a few months to 5 years, depending on the type and the wood. Spraying the surface only kills what's walking on the outside.
The beetle lays its eggs only in bare wood, so varnish and paint protect a piece from a new infestation. Put them over wood that already has larvae, though, and they stop the treatment from reaching them while the larva keeps eating underneath.
One type of woodworm needs damp wood to finish developing, and it favors wooden ceilings, storage lofts and wardrobes standing against a wall with a leak. As long as the damp stays, the beetles can lay eggs in the same wood year after year.
Treatment
The work follows 5 steps. The inspection matters most, because it shows whether there's any active woodworm at all and whether the piece is worth treating or simpler to replace. We explain each step before we start it, and at the end we tell you what to watch over the next few weeks and when to call us again.
We ask what the affected piece is (wardrobe, door, parquet, ceiling), when you first saw the powder, whether the wood is painted or bare, and whether there's a leak or damp nearby. A close-up photo of the holes and powder saves a lot of time on the visit.
The technician looks at the color of the powder and the shape of the holes, and checks the pieces next to the affected one and any wood touching the wall. They also look for mud tubes or shed wings, because those point to termites, which need a different treatment.
The product is injected into the holes so it reaches the tunnels, and bare surfaces with no varnish are brushed or given a targeted spray. The product and method depend on the wood and where it is, and nothing is sprayed into the air of the room.
If the damage is limited to one or two pieces, like a door frame or a parquet board, replacing it is sometimes simpler than treating it. In that case we advise replacing it together with the pieces touching it, as a precaution.
After treatment, clean off the powder, mark the holes and watch for new ones. Once the activity seems to have stopped, fill the holes and coat bare wood with varnish or paint so the beetle has nowhere to lay eggs. With parquet, wait at least 6 months before you refinish it.
Ready for the first step? Tell us what you saw.
Safety
Safety depends on the product and how it's used. For woodworm, the product goes into the holes and the affected wood itself rather than being sprayed around the whole room, but it still needs time to dry. Before the visit we ask about children, pregnancy, allergies and pets, and tell you when you can use the piece again.
Let us know on the first call. Keep children away from treated pieces until they're completely dry, especially a baby's crib and chairs they grab with their hands. When the piece can be used again depends on the product.
If the woodworm is in a kitchen cabinet or a china cabinet, empty it of food and dishes before the visit, and don't put them back until the technician says so. The weevils you find in rice and flour are a completely different insect, and they don't eat wood.
Take cats, dogs and birdcages out of the room during the treatment, and cover the fish tank and switch off its pump if it's nearby. Bring them back once the room has aired out and the product has dried.
You have a right to know the product's name and details before we start. If anyone at home has an allergy or asthma, tell us so we can choose a method that suits your household.
Who it is for
Woodworm arrives inside the wood itself, in secondhand furniture, antiques or timber stored for a long time before it was worked. That's why it turns up in new apartments, old houses, hotels and warehouses. What changes from one place to the next is how much wood needs checking and how the follow-up works.
Homes and apartments
At home it usually starts in a single piece, like a wardrobe, a chair or a picture frame, or in the parquet and wooden ceilings of older houses. Send us a photo of the holes and the powder and tell us how old the wood is, and we'll tell you whether it needs treatment or just monitoring.
Send details of your homeBusinesses and offices
Hotels and restaurants with wooden furniture and decor, furniture showrooms, carpentry workshops and timber stores need new wood checked before it goes into storage, plus a plan for infested pieces so the woodworm doesn't spread to the bare wood next to them.
Ask for a business quotePrice
No single price fits every case. An apartment with one infested room is not the same as a whole apartment, and a home is not the same as a business. The cost depends on these four factors, and we explain it in detail before you confirm the booking, with no surprise charges after the visit.
Ask for the quote to show:
Coverage
We cover all 27 governorates of Egypt with same-day visits. Send your area and the problem on WhatsApp or call us, and we will set a visit time for your home or business. The groups below show the main cities and districts in each region we reach.
Questions
These are the questions people in Egypt ask most about woodworm, with answers from our daily work. If yours is not here, type it in the box below. It lands in our WhatsApp, and one of the team replies about your exact situation.
No. Woodworm beetles don't bite and aren't known to harm people. All the damage is to the wood. Vacuum up the powder as it falls. If someone at home has a chest allergy and the dust bothers them, ask a doctor.
Sometimes, yes. Many holes are old, the beetles have left and the infestation ended by itself. But the type that likes damp can come back and lay eggs in the same wood year after year. Mark the holes and watch for powder for a few weeks before you decide to treat.
It can, if the piece next to it is bare wood with no varnish or paint, because the beetle lays eggs only in bare wood. That's why we check the pieces touching the infested one, and why we advise looking over any secondhand furniture carefully before it comes into your home.
A product that reaches the larva inside its tunnels, or deep cold that gets right to the core of the piece. Small items like a picture frame or a wooden ornament can go in the freezer at -18°C for 3 to 7 days. Large or fixed pieces need injection or replacement.
Not really. Vinegar and garlic sit on the surface while the larva is in tunnels deep in the wood, and even professional products may not go deeper than 6 mm into dry wood. Kerosene and paint thinner catch fire, so injecting them into a wardrobe or door indoors is a fire risk. Send us a photo of the piece before you try anything.
Most likely a woodworm larva. It's white, 6 mm long or less and lives inside the tunnels, and it's the larva, not the beetle, that actually eats the wood. If you find one while taking a piece apart or repairing it, the woodworm is still active in that piece.
The two that do the most damage to dry wood are termites and woodworm. Woodworm leaves round holes and fine powder. Termites leave mud tubes on the wall, wings near the windows and wood hollowed out and packed with mud. The treatments are different, so telling them apart comes first.
