Tiny insects on wood

[dragoon]

Hi,
I went down to the boat today - one of the reasons for visiting was to see if the recent recaulk under the rubbing strake had fixed a leak that's been there for some time.

Dragoon (a 1980 Storebro Royal Cruiser) has a bond/gasket between the fibre-glass hull and the superstructure (mahogany). At the rear quarter, there was a leak in this gasket which leaked into a locker.

These days I use the locker primarily as a tool store, and it gets (or has been a little damp at times).

Peering in with a torch, I noticed some tiny insects (maybe no longer than 1/16") crawling around on the wood above my head. They were sort of grey in colour, I don't think they were spiders and they weren't of the maggot stlyle of lavae (i.e. they had legs).

Any ideas what they are, and how to get rid of them?

Cheers,
Paul

 

[Peterduck]

Are the insects doing the boat any harm? They might be living off something that would harm your boat. Insects are not necessarily bad. If they bother you, just use a domestic insecticide.
Peter.

 

[dragoon]

Hi Peter,
I can't say as I've noticed. I don't believe they're woodworm or anything like that (I hope!).

They seemed to be coming from an section of wood that I know is only there for decorative purposes, so I'll take that off later this week and have a look behind.

Looking on the internet, the closest I can think they come to in this country is woodlice, only they're really small. Maybe a pesticide is the answer.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[gpascoe]

get a picture and try asking these guys
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/

 

[Lakesailor]

The guy I buy wood from in Kendal used to operate a woodworm treatment service. despite dealing with infested wood every day he told me he had never seen the worm. He even used to cut open wood to try and find them, but never did.

Apparently the beetle which lays the eggs will be one of these....

Read about it here http://www.petercox.com/services/woodworm.html

 

[Lakesailor]

Or how about booklice?

Details

 

[Captain Coochie]

Baby wood lice are very small and woodlice like the damp . Other wood boring beetles like it dry .

 

[hannahman]

Yes I had in mind booklice.

I'm pretty sure those are what I've seen on my boat before, just the odd one here and there.
A quick spray around with the Kybosh has done the trick in the past for me (taking care to comply with the instructions about not spraying by food nor breathing the stuff in etc!)

Doug

 

[Sixpence]

Silverfish ?
Had problems with them years ago, so may well be what you're looking at

 

[jhughes]

I was given some logs of Douglas Fir that had lain in a field for a year that had woodworms the size of Wichiti Grubs! The biggest were about 8mm in Dia. and about 50mm long, white and ribbed with a pair of jaws at 1 end.
Our chickens had a field day, picking the grubs out, when I split the logs on the hydraulic splitter.

 

[jhughes]

Got myself curious about what the grubs were and after searching the web I think they were Stag beetle Larvae.

Sorry for the thread drift!

 

[2nd_apprentice]

Eeek did you tell them to pay me a visit? Felt a bit hungry and decided to open a tin'o'soup. Searched for that little pot I had seen yesterday and looked inside expecting it to be dusty. Instead I found ten or so tiny white insects! Thought they looked like termites first but apparently they aren't endemic to Yorkshire. Knocking on wood /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Good thing though: I'm not hungry anymore so less work with washing up /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif