False Powderpost Beetle Facts & Information

What Orkin Does

Your local Orkin Pro is trained to help manage false powderpost beetles and similar pests. Since every building or home is different, your Orkin Pro will design a unique beetle treatment program for your situation.

Orkin can provide the right solution to keep false powderpost beetles in their place…out of your home, or business.

Appearance

• Size: Most wood boring false powderpost beetles are from 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch long. Species that are found outdoors in trees and firewood can be up to 2 or more inches long.

• Color: False powderpost beetles are reddish-brown to black in color with a cylinder-shaped body.

• Characteristics: The beetle’s head projects downward and is hidden by the insect’s body. The head is hard to view from above. Larvae are grub-like in appearance, C-shaped and cream-colored.

With more than 60 species of false powderpost beetles found in North America, they can be categorized into three broad groups of powderpost beetles:

• Anobiid

• Bostrichid

• Lyctid

Diet

Powderpost beetles primarily feed and infest new wood. Most of this species prefers hardwoods, although some will infest softwoods.

Life Cycle

The average life cycle from egg to adult is completed in one year or longer, if the insect is located in an unfavorable environment.

Eggs

Both the larvae and adults damage wood since adult female beetles bore into the wood and create tunnels where they lay eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae tunnel further into the wood to feed, mature, and complete their development into adults.

Adults

In the early spring, adults emerge from the infested wood by boring round exit holes. While adults may reinfest wood, most false powderpost adults do not reinfest the wood they emerged from, and wood damage is limited to what is caused by one generation.