What does a shashel look like? How to get rid of shashel in cereals - only the best methods

If there are wooden structures in your house, then the shashel, a wood-boring beetle, will probably appear in the near future.

Shashel can be dangerous itself, but most of all, their larvae cause trouble, digging long passages in floor boards, ceilings, window sills and other household and household items. Today the question on the agenda is how to quickly get rid of shashel in the house.

The first sign of the presence of shashel in a home is a subtle creaking of wood, after which wood dust appears. Many people, when buying a house or before starting construction, choose wood as the main material, since it is considered the most environmentally friendly.

Even if the main structures are made of synthetic materials, the house still contains wooden structures, furniture, and various decorations that create a special atmosphere of coziness and comfort. For this reason, there is a need to think about pest infestations. They are the wood-boring beetle or shashel.

Appearance

Belongs to the family of grinders. The insect is very small in size. Its length reaches only a few millimeters (3-4), for this reason the primary signs of their presence in your home are invisible. The shawl is often confused with midges, since the insect can fly. The color of an adult insect ranges from black to dark brown.

It has a pair of antennae and three pairs of legs, usually lighter in color than the body. Its shell is very dense, covered with small hairs. On the upper hard elytra there are several clearly defined longitudinal grooves. The body is cylindrical in shape with a small head.

The larva resembles a thick worm, the body of which is segmented. Has a yellow color. On the head Brown you can see very powerful jaws. The larva can be observed only after sawing a board or log. In life she never leaves her hole.

Life cycle and reproduction

Characteristics such as wood type, color, and shashel format are not of interest. A five-year-old tree with low humidity is suitable for its life. Once on the surface of the board, the beetle quickly bites into it and begins to dig passages in order to lay eggs faster. The first signs of destruction are visible already 12 months after its penetration into the home.

The beetle reproduces very quickly. One female lays up to 80 eggs at a time, after which they beneficially transform into larvae. Greatest harm brings the beetle in the larval stage. It is a known fact that one larva lives for about 7 years and digs tunnels over 40 km long.

When swarming, the larvae fill them with waste material and their excrement.

After drying, this content spills out and spoils the aesthetic appearance of the tree. During the trip, when favorable conditions(dryness, elevated temperature, darkness) the larva looks for a place where it subsequently turns into a pupa.

Features of shashel:

1. The adult lives only from a week to one month. It is necessary for reproduction.
2. The egg turns into a larva in 12-15 days.
3. After the larva emerges, several moults occur. The last capsule reaches a size of about 4 mm. In this case, the beetle is 2 mm in size.
4. All stages comprise a time period of two years. The larval stage is considered the longest.

The shawl larva alone is capable of damaging more than half of all lumber.

How shashel penetrates the home

The main reasons for the appearance of woodworm in the house can be:

• Use of untested lumber in construction.
• Using old wood that has cracks and crevices.
• Improper storage of wood in warehouses, which become unsuitable for construction and repair.
• Purchased furniture with shashel larvae.

The first signs of the pest, as a rule, are not visible, but after the symptoms of its presence in the house appear, it becomes very difficult to cope with the insect. Therefore, if the house has already been built or there is homemade furniture from damaged material, try to carefully inspect the wood for holes and damage whenever you do a deep cleaning.

Important! When choosing timber for construction, inspect the timber. They should be without bark and visible holes, entrances for beetles.

To begin the fight against the enemy, you need to determine his location, for this you need to inspect wooden partitions on the ceiling, floor, window sills, doorways, all furniture made of wood.

You should pay attention to upholstered furniture, the frame of which is also made of pressed sawdust or wooden beams. You can easily determine if you hear a sound that resembles a clock or light tapping. Such sounds are characteristic of adult individuals during mating, which occurs on the surface.

After being able to discover unpleasant neighbor we need to start destroying them. The choice of method will depend on the residents’ capabilities in terms of finances, time and effort.

Video: Fighting shashel in books and antiques

Chemicals

The proven and most popular broad-spectrum insecticides are used:

In any case, the choice is yours. If you find it difficult to choose an antiseptic or insecticide, you can ask a consultant in the store for help.

Traditional methods

You can cope with shashel using recipes invented and tested by people over a long time.

The most effective are:

• Dilute 1 cup of sodium fluoride into a ten-liter bucket of water. This solution is treated wooden surface from a spray bottle. The advantage of the method is the treatment of hard-to-reach places.
• The next solution is prepared as follows: take 3 liters of turpentine and mix with 1 liter of kerosene or gasoline. Lubricate wooden partitions affected by shashel using a paint brush. You should not treat all boards and structures, only infected ones. This solution is very smelly and can harm human health. After complete absorption, the room should be well ventilated.
• For 10 liters of turpentine, take equal amounts (0.5 kg each) of creolin and paraffin. Mix everything thoroughly and lubricate the affected areas.

Important! All wood processing manipulations must be carried out using rubber gloves and a respirator.

Listed traditional methods have unpleasant pungent odors, which, if more contaminated, are not suitable for treating residential premises, so they are suitable for warehouses, livestock farms, poultry farms, vegetable stores, etc.

Conclusion

There are a lot of methods to combat shashel. In addition to those listed chemicals and folk solutions, you can use hot steam treatment, fumigation, or microwave destruction.

But unfortunately, such methods are acceptable for specialized services, and they are usually very expensive.

Have you heard that when listening to music, cows milk better, plants grow better, and pigs gain weight? And I heard. And I saw TV programs about such experiments. Is it absolutely possible to assume that if you replace Mozart and Vivaldi with ACDC and Ozzy Osbourne, you can achieve the opposite effect? And then cockroaches, mice, moths will run away from the house, and at the same time the wood-boring beetles, which systematically grind down their teeth on the structure of your roof, will disappear! If you are still in front of the screen, and have not run away in search of music, then this article is for you! from woodworms exist and not in musical performance. Let's talk about this.

When to expect woodworm beetles in a wooden house

With the advent of warming, every insect, trying to continue its genus, dreams of finding something suitable for laying eggs or larvae. And just like that, by the will of fate, your bathhouse made of beautiful and dry logs or timber appeared on her road. Spring brings not only beauty in the form of lush greenery, but also beetles, worms and moths hungry for your wooden buildings. Thank God there are no termites in our area, but the walls wooden house can be eaten by any local midges.

On wooden buildings wood-boring beetles (shashel), of which there are up to 10 in nature, have laid their eyes on different types. These uninvited guests come to us when the larvae are laid. But the most annoying thing is to buy the building materials yourself and prepare one that has already been affected by bugs and worms. When you and I will work in the gardens during the May holidays - activity beetles - pests wood will also be maximum. “Peace, Labor, May” will begin for everyone. It's time for us to show the beetles our “peaceful teeth”! Despite their miniature size, the damage caused by these pests to wood is enormous. Measures to destroy them must be adequate, but more on that later.
The time for the woodworm beetle to become active is spring. If the process of its reproduction is not stopped in time, the costs of breeding the beetle increase every year exponentially.

You need to know the enemy by sight: Types of wood-boring beetles

Wood-boring beetle - House beetle(Hylotrupes bajulus) is popularly known as the black house beetle or house woodcutter. Like all bugs, it goes through the following stages of development: egg-larva-pupa. And here we are greeted with an exciting message that, despite the natural protective properties of coniferous trees, the larvae of the longhorn beetle develop in strong, dry wood (It is in the summer after the May warming that they begin to reproduce.

A female longhorned beetle lays its eggs in crevices of coniferous wood. trees. As a rule, these are no longer living trunks through which sap flows. You see, they don’t like wood with a moisture content greater than natural (20%). The result of the “work” of the larvae is very beautiful - a labyrinth of passages. Therefore, pay attention first of all to old, dry wooden structures. Is there a fine whitish flour on their surface? If there is, take immediate action.

The most favorite place for woodworm larvae to lay is old bark, which for some reason has not been removed from wooden parts log house

False bark beetle(Bostrychus capucinus). Another type of bug is a pest that is common in areas with warm climates. This bark beetle can even attack hard oak wood. The peculiarity of the hard structure of the tree causes it to gnaw the trunk along the structure of the wood fibers. The favorite habitat of this beetle is not the masonry of wells, support posts and fences. It is very difficult to detect the beetle in the form in which it is shown in the photo. All these pests are almost invisible in life. We can only observe traces of their destruction.

Bugweevil ( Curculionidae). Some species of arboreal gourmets prefer not only the wood of cut dead trees, but feed on almost all types of living plants. They should not be confused with those weevils that gnaw out the ovaries of young fruit trees. These pest bugs gnaw channels under the bark even in dried or rotten tree trunks. Favorite habitat is firewood and tree trimmings that lie in the rain. About 5,000 species of this beetle are found in Russia.

Do not arrange firewood and storage areas for old cut trees (for firewood) directly in the vicinity of the log house of your bathhouse or wooden house. This rule also applies to orchards - favorite place residence of the weevil beetle. They can damage your garden seedlings and mature fruit trees.

Borer beetle(Lymexylidae Fleming). People also call this beetle “drill”. Its larvae live in wood and drill holes with a diameter of 1–2 mm. Thanks to this method of promotion, it got its name. The beetle itself does not feed on wood, but on the mycelium that grows in these channels drilled by the beetle. For lunch, breakfast and dinner, these small wood destroyers prefer oak and walnut, which, thank God, are not the main material for building a bathhouse. But the first crown made of oak frame) - can become unusable from one family of such a beetle, regardless of the performance of all. Considering that the driller also loves pine needles, it poses a serious danger to all wooden buildings.
Many lovers of landscape work like to decorate the area with the bark of conifers so that grass and weeds do not grow. It is advisable to treat such bark against pests, since it is the favorite food of the borer beetle.

By the way, there are also wood-eating bees (or carpenter bees). They gnaw out a passage up to 30 cm long in wood, which is divided into cells and lays an egg in each.

Beetle grinder(Anobiidae). The most famous and widespread pest of wood and everything wooden. It is found almost everywhere - from trees to wooden furniture. The walls of your house are his walls, although you didn’t invite him to visit! IN normal conditions The larvae and the beetle itself live in dying or dead wood. Preference is given to rooms with damp walls, especially those located with north side. These walls are more damp than others. The most dangerous property of this pest, the wood borer, is the absence of external signs of vital activity. The internal parts of wood are the main diet of this beetle; they do not destroy its outer layer. There are methods for acoustically detecting the presence of a beetle in the walls of a house. Electronic stethoscopes are used for this. For lovers interesting facts Let us tell you that it is not the sound of their jaws that sounds like ticking in a log. These are beetle calls for females to successfully continue the race and eat our favorite wooden bathhouse.

This list of wood-boring beetles can be continued for a long time. Nature has given us a huge number of species of beetles. But the list of ethics should hang on every construction site in the category “They are wanted by...”

Among wood pest beetles well known Shashel. Adults communicate with each other using a very loud sound. They can be detected by touching your head to a tree, usually at night, and hearing a sound like someone sawing something. Adults are reddish to dark brown and lay eggs in crevices or small holes or pores in untreated (unprotected) wood. It may take two years to full cycle every generation. That's why get rid of from them and completely destroy difficult by conventional means.

Shashel - beetles are mainly in soft wood, including in beams, walls, foundation wood, and some types of furniture. They may even attack books. This wood pest usually found in wood that is old and partially decaying. Shashel prefer wood that has more than 14% moisture content. Larvae Zhukov fill their passages gnawed deep in the tree with excrement, which spills onto the floor and resembles fine gray-brown wood dust.

Ways to combat shashel difficult once the infection has begun. Prevention is the best way management. Protective measures must be taken at all stages of processing wood, including sawmills, lumber and furniture mills and factories, and construction companies. Sanitation is the most important aspect of prevention. Destroy dead parts of trees (before they become infested) near buildings or near any area where timber is stored. Drying lumber helps get rid of from Zhukov pests, although this does not interfere re-infection. Materials used for the construction of buildings and wooden furniture, must be carefully tested before use to ensure they do not contain wood pest. Protection wood from infection - painting or varnishing to seal pores, cracks and holes where eggs may be laid.

So as not to accidentally bring shashelya, inspect furniture and other wooden objects before they enter your home. As fight against shashel You can fumigate items that show signs of infection beetle. Small wooden items (but not those containing fabrics, hides, or paints) can be heated in an oven at 50-60°C for 6 hours or placed in a freezer at -17°C for 72 hours. Longer treatment may be required if the tree is thicker than 2 inches.

Ways to combat shashel:

Remove and replace contaminated structural wood parts. Destroy infected wood. Where removal is not possible, use liquid insecticides that are labeled to control these pests, such as NEOMID 100 Anti-Bug Biocide. Apply only to infested areas. But be sure that you thoroughly saturate all surfaces, applying 3-4 layers of the composition. And also, using a construction syringe, inject the Anti-Beetle composition into all the holes bored out shashel V wood, so that get rid of from the larvae inside. Penetration depth increases with damp wood If the humidity is less than 15%, the penetration can only be 1 cm.
Be sure to follow the instructions on the label. Wear necessary protective clothing and respiratory protection.

For the treatment of extensive wood damage and invasions shashelya inside a building, or where treatment of structural parts of the building is not available, order fumigation of the entire building. Many professional operators offer this struggle With pest beetles.

During the construction of any building, wood is used for certain structures (doors, windows, window sills, floors, rafters). Very often, additional treatment of the wood against pests is not carried out, which causes premature destruction. The main enemy of wood is the wood-boring beetle (shashel, house beetle).

If you hear a specific sound in the house unpleasant creaking, and wood flour began to fall out of the tree, which means a woodworm has appeared. Insect larvae are especially dangerous. They make huge passages in the boards and beams, gradually destroying the house. Therefore, you should start fighting the shashel as early as possible in order to keep your home intact.

Description of the wood beetle

This is a dark brown or black flying insect from the family of beetles. The beetles are several millimeters in size and can be confused with small flies. Outwardly they are quite harmless, but by eating wood they cause a lot of problems.

Most of the time, pests are in the wood, making passages there. And they come out during the mating season. Shasheli reproduce very actively. In gnawed tree holes (2-6 cm deep), females build a nest and lay about 80 eggs there. As soon as the larvae emerge from them, they immediately begin to destroy the tree. The larva can live in wood for 6-7 years (sometimes up to 15). During this time, she drills about 40 km of passages. It is the larvae that cause damage to 99% of timber.

Reasons for appearance

Wood-boring beetles can appear in the house for several reasons:

• Use of contaminated wood during building construction.
• Old, unkempt wood with cracks and crevices.

If felled trees are stored improperly (staying in a humid environment for a long time), beetles begin to lay eggs in them. If contaminated material is used during construction without treatment, soon the emerging larvae will begin to destroy the wood.

In order not to have problems and not to fight wood-boring beetles, you need to protect yourself in advance from their appearance in the house. To do this, you should take a responsible approach to the selection and use of wood.

• Once a year, conduct a thorough inspection of wooden structures for damage.
• For construction, use only dry wood, cleared of bark. You can drop iodine onto the surface. If it turns blue, the material is not dry enough.
• Structures exposed to moisture are most susceptible to pests and must be treated with protective agents. It is better to impregnate with pastes that will protect the wood for several years.
• All wood used for construction should be coated with antiseptics to prevent infection. It's not worth saving on them. Fighting shashel will cost more.
• During reconstruction work, infected wooden elements It’s better to destroy them and replace them with new ones.

The wood-boring beetle is one of the most dangerous pests in the house. It practically goes unnoticed; it stays in the wood all the time, gradually destroying it. The presence of beetles can be recognized when the house is already dilapidated. To prevent this from happening, you need to check construction materials in advance, use protective agents for processing, and properly operate wooden structures.

What means and how to treat wood against wood-boring beetles? Useful tips in the following video:

What insects are the most dangerous for wood and what you need to know about the larvae wood pests? Is it possible to detect the presence of insects in lumber or structure? You will find answers to these questions in our article.

Tree pests

The most terrible scourge of wood is termite, bark beetle and shashel (woodworm). Wood beetles act quickly and render wood unusable in 2-3 seasons. Termite colony destroys rafter system for 1–2 seasons. It is precisely because of the speed of movement and omnivory that tree beetles can be “infectious,” that is, they can move to a clean, uninfected forest and lay larvae.

Shashel or woodworm

This pest is also called the “grinder beetle.” However, it is not the beetle itself that is dangerous (adults do not live long and do not feed on anything), but its larva. Shashal larvae have a loose structure and developed jaws, with which they grind wood fibers using nutrients of them.

Bark beetle

This beetle also feeds on oxidized wood - the most “delicious” areas for it are where the bark adjoins the clean fibers.

Termite or white ant

Insects live in large colonies with excellent organization. The species diversity of these insects is amazing - about 3000 species. Distinctive feature termites are that they move hidden, making passages underground or in the body of wood. Therefore, the termite mound, built in wooden structure, seemingly invisible.

How to identify tree infestation

Lumber affected by insects has characteristic differences:

• visible remains of tunnels under the bark of the wane - bark beetle;
• abnormal lightness of the board, holes Ø 2–5 mm on the surface, while the board appears intact, there are no moves - termite or shashel;
• wood flour (dust), sometimes black-brown in color - all insects.

Wood affected by pests is “not treated”, because insects always strive to capture the largest space and are distributed throughout the entire element or structure, as long as their number is sufficient. If signs of a beetle are detected, you should refuse to purchase the material. If the beetle is found in existing stocks, the material should be rejected and the infested products should be burned.

The presence of larvae in an existing structure can be determined by ear - they make a characteristic grinding or tapping sound as they bite into the wood. In the old days, this sound was called the “death clock”, because practically nothing was known about the possibility of fighting.

Pest control methods

All methods of countering wood insects can be divided into preventive and operational.

Preventive action

This category includes actions for pre-processing lumber, i.e. before it enters the composition building structure. These methods prevent the formation of fungus and make the wood unsuitable for insects.

On-site antiseptic treatment. The simplest, cheapest and at the same time the weakest method of protection. Usually the composition is simply applied to the surface of the wood at the place of storage or immediately before use. For ease of use you have to “pay” with a shallow penetration depth - up to 1 mm. Moreover, any antiseptic has a validity period, usually from 1 to 5 years. After 5 years, any antiseptic is guaranteed to be neutralized and the structure requires re-treatment.

Heat treatment. This method involves heating in sealed heat chambers. In this case, the products are heated to 140 °C, but the lack of oxygen prevents the wood from igniting. The body of the tree is disinfected and the nutrients for insects (sugar, starch) disintegrate; they are no longer “interested” in such a tree. Calcination provides a number of interesting advantages - evaporation excess moisture compacts the material and it becomes harder, and the surface is slightly charred - up to 1 micron (0.1 mm). Firing costs 40 to 50% of the price of wood.

Autoclave. Most effective method disinfection and antiseptic treatment of wood - autoclave impregnation. It is used when processing the most valuable products - laminated veneer lumber and laminated laminated beams. The product is placed in a sealed container filled with an antiseptic, into which pressure is then applied to 100 atm. Under pressure, the substance penetrates into the structure of the fibers, and they become completely “inedible” (unsuitable) for insects and fungi. Autoclave impregnation will increase the cost of the product by 50–80% (depending on the substance).

Operational measures

These methods are used in emergency cases - when the beetle has already entered existing structure. These measures do not give a 100% effect; rather, we are talking about 50% of cases when the development (reproduction) of insects can be stopped. If it is not possible to replace an element, then both old “old-fashioned” and modern technological methods will come to the rescue.

Injection

The most labor-intensive, but quite effective way to combat larvae. To implement it, you will need a basic chemical - a solution of sodium fluoride or sodium fluoride, which can be purchased at a fertilizer store. The method is applicable if inlets are available.

Operating procedure:

1. Prepare a solution of sodium fluoride - 250 ml of concentrate per 3 liters of water.
2. Clean and blow out the inlet openings with a syringe.
3. Prepare a paste of bread and concentrate.
4. Using a syringe, inject the solution into the larvae's passage.
5. Seal the hole with “putty” made from poisoned bread, if possible, so that the solution remains inside.

Injection will remove wood flour from the passage. The vapors of the solution and the soaked walls of the passage will force the larva to look for an urgent (during the day) exit and it will try to crawl back along the familiar passage. To get out, she will need to chew through the cork of the poisoned bread. All. It looks like a fairy tale or a comic book, but the method was invented and made public by a summer resident biologist.

Tapping

If the shashel or bark beetle is infested in the floor or wooden wall, such a simple method as tapping will help. It is quite effective, especially if there are no entry holes on the visible surface. It is better to tap the plane or structure through a block so as not to leave marks from the mallet or hammer. The harder and more often you work on the block, the better the effect will be.

The larvae of shashel, bark beetle and termite consist of 85% moisture, have a loose structure and are not adapted to vibration. The water, vibrating from the impact in their soft shell, simply tears them apart, leaving only mucus. Practice has shown that where the larvae die, new insects do not appear.

Microwave processing

The moisture that makes up the larvae contains processed nutrients, in particular protein, which coagulates when heated to 56 °C. In other words, if you heat the structure to just 58–60 °C, any larvae will die, because the protein in them will simply coagulate. Heat the structure traditional methods not possible, but modern technology makes it possible to do this using microwaves, which are used in the familiar household microwave oven.

To implement the method, you will need a working microwave oven, which will be irrevocably converted into a unit for combating shashel. Considering the method is 100% effective and harmless, this is a small price to pay.

Operating procedure:

1. Cut off the side wall of the microwave oven opposite the magnetron (usually it is located on the wall with the control panel).
2. Determine by ear and mark with a marker the location of the larvae.
3. Install the device, pointing the open part (socket) to the site of the larva lesion. The gap between the socket and the surface of the wood is 20–30 mm. The device must be connected in an adjacent room.

Attention! Invisible microwaves cause any protein to coagulate, including the eye protein. Being in the same room as a working device is extremely dangerous. Staying in the next room is absolutely safe.

1. Set the timer for 20 minutes and go into the next room to connect the device.
2. Plug in the device and wait 20 minutes.
3. After the shutdown timer has triggered, move the device to the next prevention point.

The most effective method will be complete prevention - wave treatment of the entire structure.

Conclusion

Fungus and rot are also dangerous, but their action requires a lot of time and appropriate conditions (heat, dampness, stagnant air). Therefore, natural defects develop much more slowly and it is possible to stop them in time.

Vitaly Dolbinov, rmnt.ru