In Eastern Washington, doesn’t line up with any of the WDOs I’ve studied for my SPI licensing. This is on my property.
The wood affected is old and frequently wet, not pressure treated, and rotted. Lost all structural integrity, I can break it with my pinky and a pen tip goes in like its warm butter.
I’ve probed it a few times, originally was just some emergence holes.
Frass is packed in the galleries ranging from dark brown to black, color could just be from the rotten wood, smoother but some resembling pellets or easily mushed pellets
I thought maybe it’s from old house borers, but the galleries don’t have that rippled characteristic
It seems to resemble stag beetle damage the most- which is not technically a WDO. They feed solely on decayed/rotted wood. I found larvae in a taproot I dug up on my property, the tree had been cut down years before I bought the place. I could not identify the larvae off my knowledge so I researched and what appeared the most accurate was the stag beetle. larvae are considerably large compared to reinfesting species, dark white gray bodies with orange heads. The frass appears very similar to what i found in the rotted tap root, although more like pellets when undisturbed, but easily mushed and much of it caked into the galleries. I didn’t have much a chance to see the stag beetle frass undisturbed in the tap root so I can’t quite confirm the damage on my sill plate is the same.
Note: the picture with the damaged wood with the little green flower bud is the taproot- stag beetle larvae frass.
The gallery on my sill plate appeared to measure about 1/4inch
That hole you highlighted may have actually been from me probing it with my pen.
But yes, it is definitely from beetles. The trouble I’m having is that the characteristics of the damage and frass align closest to either bostrichid beetles (false powderpost) or more closely, Roundhead borers (Cerambycidae). However, both of those infest live and freshly cut, or new woods. And it can’t be roundhead borers because there’s no bark on this old sill plate. This is likely original material from when the home was built in the 1930s
The data presented is unfortunately insufficient.
My best guess is Annobiid, old inactive stuff.
Cannnot be Cerambycidae.
The genus ranks above is for tens of thousands of different species.
All that clump of crap might be damaged wood thru time that has become clustered from moisture.
Yeah I should of took measurements of the emergence holes before I went probing. It fell apart a lot easier than I expected. I originally looked at this a week or two ago, the emergence holes seemed bigger than 1/8th inch so I ruled anobiid out, but I can’t know for sure now. There is a few holes on another sill plate same area of the house that has small emergence holes, very well could be inactive anobiid, they are prevalent where I am. Are you familiar with weather anobiids are attracted to rotted, or very moisture damaged wood?
I do believe the clump of stuff is frass though, its caked in the galleries and I can still see the structure of the decayed wood around it. The tap root was interesting to investigate. No publications or mention of stag beetle activity in the WAC’s relating to wood destroying organisms
Obviously I do or I wouldn’t have made the post. We really don’t need to take it that direction this is for educational purposes. It’s easy to just say replace the affected wood, obviously that needs to happen. There’s more value to able to say this appears to have been infested by (anobiid beetles) or _____ based off the frass packed into the galleries, the size and direction of the galleries, size and shape of the exit holes, the moisture content of the wood, along with brown rot, etc.
Try to settle down, a little sensitive huh…
Sorry I didn’t want you to think I was an entomologist or something like that
I googled stuff to try to help
lol is that what you think it is? Pretty calm over here just reminding you what the point of the post is. If ur not licensed to report on WDOs then u have don’t really have a reason to comment here, so i can see why you’ve taken this route rather than being able to admit you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’d probably do the same thing if I was too fragile to admit i didn’t know what I was talking about
new here, huh? yeah, this place is toxic as hell, one of the last vestiges of “the gool ol’ boy club” in real life where you “better have a thick skin” to interact with the various “professionals” on the board. i have only needed to block three to get a relatively peaceful time here. i may miss out on a little good info but not nearly enough to worry about it. it doesn’t take much effort to rise to the top of the inspector ladder anyway. too many folks who have no clue past the training to get the license.
If anyone took the time, Marc was offering good information based on decades of experience and education. I’ll let him rattle off his credentials if he chooses but I will say his experience is specific to the thread topic.
This was nothing more than a statement intended to remind inspectors not to get caught up in the minutia. But Mr. Butthurt had to make the thread toxic; it wasn’t Marc.
Thank you Brian
May have forgotten some stuff———-
Became a graduate entomologist & started All Tropic
Pest &Termite Service
“For The Little Things In Life That BUG You”
