Powder Post Beetles in 2020 Minnie

[LinMinZoe]

Hi All - Wondering if anyone has experience with Powder Post Beetle treatment in their travel trailer. Found evidence of 'sawdust' frass and 3 pinholes in bathroom ceiling. I believe it is powder post beetles as they are known to emerge in the spring. Called dealer who referred me to Winnebago. Left a vmail at Winnebago and waiting to hear back. I saw a few threads on other forums but did not see anything here. Hoping spot treatment is an option or if need to tent, hope to get reimbursed by Winnebago. Thanks for any info.

[ThomB]

That's a new one on me? Not sure what a Powder Post Beetle is but I'd think on a 2020 it's just a lack of clean up rather than a bug. Will be interesting what you hear back.

[orangeminnie]

WI has a lamentable habit of not cleaning up sawdust and other debris in their construction. This probably saves them 50 cents in labor per trailer, and causes a lot more than 50 cents of damage to their reputation IMHO!

[LinMinZoe]

Thanks for your responses. We received our Winnie last year and have traveled a bit so this 'sawdust' is definitely from either beetles or termites and is recent activity. I found additional kick out holes on the other side of the door in the ceiling and more dust. I have a pest control person coming Monday. I spoke to Winnebago and will send along the pest report once I get it. The guy I spoke to had never heard of these but I bet the folks that construct the campers have experienced this. I believe the issue is that the beetles are inside the wood and take a year or more to emerge, perfect timing! I'll update the post when I get the report. I put this on the forum to see if any other campers have reported the issue. Thanks again for the replies.

[Goodspike]

What are you meaning by kick out holes? Are these small holes in the material of the interior ceiling that were not there when the unit was manufactured?

[RDP]

Post some photos, at the bottom select "Go Advanced" the 'Manage Attachments" resize your photo to 1200 x 1200 pixels.

[bamaboy473]

FWIW, we bought a bed headboard years ago that...several months later...wife said she heard chewing at night. We later found sawdust and awhile later found holes where the larva had chewed through to daylight and freedom.

If your coach has wood sourced from the far east, it's entirely possible that larva made the trip inside their piece of wood.

I guess the good news is that this is a one-time event, unless it's termites.

[jbrattain]

It's probably not termites because they need a continuous enclosed path to water, they don't leave "sawdust", and they eventually emerge in a swarm.

Never heard of powder post beetles in an RV, but I'm sure it's possible. They can cause serious damage to pine and fir woods. We lost a barn to powder post beetles when I was growing up on the farm.

Powder post beetles consume just the pulp portion of the wood and leave the rest. If they are stopped in time, there probably wouldn't be significant damage to the strength of the wood structure. I would think an exterminator could eliminate them, even if it means wrapping the complete RV and fumigating it. I've seen this done on whole houses before.

[NormD]

Only experience with powder post beetles was in a birch coat hanger. Tiny holes, like Q-tip stem diameter, and dust. Ate the whole interior of the hanger and left only a paper-thin shell. The hanger crumpled upon handling. Apparently love hardwood. Fortunately, everything else was fir and not to their taste.

[cj_calva]

Well those bugs love hardwood and don't go on chipboards or plywood due the glue which is in it. Do you have any hardwood in your Minnie?
Ok, if you are certain and if you don't want to call a professional:
Go to a pharmacy or a drugstore and they give you what you need as well as the instruments for injecting it into the holes.
But be careful. First: Most of this stuff is based on petroleum and you have to vent the whole interior over several days, at least one week. Don't smoke! Second: The good stuff (if you can get it) is lethal and cancerogen, so wear special masks, protect your skin and eyes.
Once again, I suggest to call a professional. The "light civil stuff" you get is for nothing, you have to repeat the treatment three times minimum....

[TroutBum1971]

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f101/bee...al-444561.html

Seems like it is a problem

[Morich]

Part of the problems we create when we move wood from place to place is the potential to move bugs along as well. currently much of the wood in the West may have beetles of one sort or another while much of the paneling is made offshore and that sets us up for getting a whole raft of different bugs who may not have any local predators to control them. Inspections catch some things like this but it certainly is not going to be possible to look at a whole ship full of plywood and spot a few tiny bugs in a half dozen sheets.
So the question becomes one of where and when the bugs got in the wood. Did they come in before the build started or after when we passed through some area where they were swarming.
Kind of like the virus? We never know where we got it! My experience with this sort of thing was in a furnished apartment where the little lady broke the chair leg as she sat down. With her not weighing over 100 pounds, I had to go see what happened and found the leg was almost gone!