The term woodboring beetle encompasses many species and families of beetles whose larval or adult forms eat and destroy wood (i.e., are xylophagous). Larval stages of some are commonly known as woodworm

Woodworm

A woodworm is not a specific species. It is the larval stage of certain woodboring beetles including:*Ambrosia beetles *Bark borer beetle / Waney edge borer *Common furniture beetle...

s.

Invasion and control

Woodboring beetles are commonly detected a few years after new construction. The lumber supply may have contained wood infected with beetle eggs or larvae, and since beetle life cycles can be one or more years, several years may pass before the presence of beetles becomes noticeable. If you have an infestation of woodboring beetles, it is best to consult a professional entomologist before contacting an exterminator. In many cases, the beetles will be of a type that only attacks living wood, and thus incapable of "infesting" any other pieces of wood, or doing any further damage. In other words, only some types of beetles should be of concern to a homeowner (see list below), and exterminators may be unable or unwilling to make this distinction.

Genuine infestations are far more likely in areas with high humidity, such as poorly-ventilated crawl spaces. Housing with central heating/air-conditioning tends to cut the humidity of wood in the living areas to less than half of natural humidity, thus strongly reducing the likelihood of an infestation. Infested furniture should be removed from the house before the infestation spreads.

Methods of treatment include:

• Spot application of pesticides; however, most effective insecticides are obtainable only by certified professionals.
• Freezing. Infested furniture may be wrapped in plastic and placed in walk-in freezers for several weeks.
• Fumigation.
• Heat Treatment. Timber is heated to 50-70 degree Celsius for a few hours.

Home-invading woodboring beetles

Some beetles invade wood used in construction and furniture making; others limit their activity to forests or roots of living trees. The following lists those beetles that are house pests.

• Ambrosia beetle
  Ambrosia beetle
  Ambrosia beetles are beetles of the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae , which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi and probably with bacteria...
  
  
• Common furniture beetle
  Common furniture beetle
  The common furniture beetle or common house borer is a woodboring beetle. In the larval stage it bores in wood and feeds upon it. Adult Anobium punctatum measure 2.7–4.5 mm in length. They have brown ellipsodial bodies with a pronotum resembling a monk's cowl .-Life cycle:Adults do not...
  
  
• Deathwatch beetle
• Flat-headed wood-borer
  Chalcophora japonica
  Chalcophora japonica, or ubatamamushi in Japanese , also known as the flat-headed wood-borer, is a metallic, bullet-shaped, woodboring beetle of the Buprestidae family. It is endemic to Japan.-Habitat and appearance:This insect is commonly found on the islands of Honshū, Shikoku and Kyūshū...
  
  
• Powderpost beetle
  Powderpost beetle
  Powderpost beetles are a group of seventy species of woodboring beetles classified in the insect subfamily Lyctinae. These beetles, along with spider beetles, death watch beetles, common furniture beetles, skin beetles, and others, make up the superfamily Bostrichoidea. While most woodborers have a...
  
   (Anobiidae
  Anobiidae
  Anobiidae is a family of beetles. The larvae of a number of species tend to bore into wood, earning them the name "woodworm" or "wood borer". A few species are pests, causing damage to wooden furniture and house structures, notably the death watch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum, and the common...
  
  , Bostrichidae
  Bostrichidae
  The Bostrichidae are a family of beetles with more than 700 described species. They are commonly called auger beetles, false powderpost beetles or horned powderpost beetles. The head of most auger beetles cannot be seen from above, as it is downwardly directed and hidden by the thorax...
  
  )
• Old-house borers