What eats MDF?

[Doug71]

A customer has asked me to fix some rot in the bottoms of a couple of sliding sash bay windows, the windows are Sapele and only about 12 years old (I didn't make them).

The fronts had some cover caps on which looked really rotten at the bottom, when I removed them they were just MR MDF and were soaking wet, I guessed they had just held water which had in turn made the window rot.

Behind the cover caps the windows were worse than expected, it was only when the mushy MDF dried out I noticed these bore holes in it, guess something had made a home or had a feast in there, probably then moved on to the window sill and chewed on that a bit?

Any ideas what would do this, maybe some kind of wasps or flies?

 

[TRITON]

Holes look pretty big, and woodworm its usually a lot smaller. Termites of some description would be my guess as from what I remember termites also attack mdf and chipboard.

Or I could be completely wrong
See here
https://howtomurderpests.com/what-wood-termites-do-not-eat/
Which suggests whatever made the holes could have moved on onto any timber backing in the window or house framing.

 

[Ollie78]

Maybe wasps, they like fibrous stuff like paper for making nests.

I might add, what the actual F*** were they doing using MDF for that anyway.

Ollie

 

[Adam W.]

Quality shiz, that is.

 

[Bingy man]

The damage could of happened years ago and the culprits long gone , infestations and nesting insects usually leave other evidence of their visit ( dead ones and nesting material etc) my guess would be wasps ( wood wasp maybe)

 

[Ozi]

Possibly bees, I had a bee nesting in a wooden window frame and watched about 20 emerge via a hole drilled for a television coaxial when the frame was removed it looked a bit like your picture

 

[okeydokey]

Slightly off topic but follows on from the above Ozi post
I live in a 1930's house where wall (lighting) electric cables cable run in steel conduits.
So a couple of years ago we had a few wasps in the lounge - so what dealt with them and then a few more, looked outside no obvious nearby nests.
Then I found that wasps were squeezing themselves out of the conduit and exiting from behind a normal light fitting - it transpired that they had built a nest in the ceiling space between the joists/the floor above and were coming down the conduit as a way out of the inside of the nest. Got them eventually but a bit scary to see, maybe there a script for a horror film here?

 

[Pineapple]

Maybe wasps, they like fibrous stuff like paper for making nests.

I might add, what the actual F*** were they doing using MDF for that anyway.

Ollie

Quality-Control issue, caused by an employer who finds "sgoodenuffs" cheaper !

 

[John Hall]

Probably wood boring or death watch beetle…If you were in Australia, I’d say termites, but they’re very rare in the UK. Wasps do make they’re nests from wood, I caught one gnawing on a window sill once , the noise was incredible, but they don’t tend to make that much damage

 

[Jacob]

Woodlice perhaps. They don't bore holes but they do enlarge burrows in damp wood existing gaps e.g. where a doorframe meets a damp floor. They follow the rot.

 

[Spectric]

Termites of some description would be my guess

Do we have termites in the UK, I know they are a big problem in many warmer countries like the southern American states and Australia, infact they are a real pest it seems and not a freind of woodworking, quote

In Australia, about a billion dollars is spent each year on termite control. House-eating termites are most common in the tropical north, although they are found throughout the continent. While there are more than 300 species of termite, only a handful are considered pests.

Wow, you don't want them in your workshop as they look to be very destructive.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Do we have termites in the UK,

The short answer is essentially, no. Termites are active from about 50º north to 50º south. They do inadvertently arrive in the UK when imported but because, for the most part, they are native to the tropics they have little chance of establishing themselves. In 1994 there was a known infestation of termites, a colony of Reticulotermes lucifugus, discovered in Devon. There may be more recent examples of termite infestation here, but I've not heard reports of it happening that I can recall. The range of termites seems gradually to be expanding northwards and southwards in response to a warming climate with evidence of this happening in places like France and elsewhere, e.g., North America. Given that, perhaps termites might become a more common problem in the UK in the future.

As to what chewed up the MDF that prompted the original question I can't say, and existing suggestions are, I suppose, possible. I see solitary wasps (and bees) and hole enlarging woodlice (aka, slaters) as being possible culprits, although my suggestion is no better than any other ideas already made. Slainte.

 

[Spectric]

I suppose that is why you see so many metal fences in Australia.

 

[John Hall]

That’s right..My two sons live in Adelaide…termites are a massive problem

 

[clogs]

termites are in the SW of France but nothing compared to the Capricorn beetle lavae...
this is a small one, gen they get as big as a mans thumb.....
they will eat thru a 200 plus year old Oak beam that will blunt a chain saw...."it's like cheese Gromit"..lol..
they are so disgusting even our chickens wouldn't eat em.....hahaha....

that MDF would norm be impossible to eat as the glue is real bad stuff.....
but prob an imported insect from the old EU.....haha....

 

[giantbeat]

WEEEVILS!!!

 

[Stevekane]

Our friends in California had their new wooden house all “plumbed up” for pest control, the guy turned up once a year and connected onto a fitting at the side of the house, our friends would go out for the day and matey would fill the house cavities with bug killer,,of course in the US its carpenters who seem to build houses and I saw small commercial buildings being clad in what looked like rendered plasterboard, I got the impression that they were not building for permanency and whatever it was was going to be “remodeled” after not too long.
Steve.