Think you might need borer treatment?

$253.00 Full roof-space and sub-floor inspection.

From $253.00 internal borer flight season treatment. The best time to get it done is October to be prepared for borer flight season November to January.

If a full sub-floor and/or roof treatment is required, we will provide a quote as an item on the inspection report.

Borer are not well understood in New Zealand. When homeowners think of borer, they fear their home is going to collapse in a year or two, like in Australia with the aggressive subterranean termites.

Well put your mind at ease. We don’t have these type of termites in NZ and our borer species are all fairly non-aggressive. We rarely find major problems in the wooden structure of homes. In most cases no borer treatment is required, and only minor work needs to be done, if anything at all.

Commonly asked questions we get from worried homeowners are:

I’ve noticed borer holes in my home. Is it active?

If the borer is active, you’ll notice sawdust coming out of the hole or in a small pile on floors and ledges underneath holes. In Auckland, the sawdust is most likely to appear between November & January. This is borer flight season, the time when the adult borer beetles are emerging from the wood. The emerging adult borer beetles are what cause the visible holes and sawdust.

A good way to tell if holes are new or not is to look at them with a magnifying glass. If they look crisp and clean, they’re probably new holes. If they look dull because of dust and paint build-up, they’re likely to be old borer holes.

Will the borer spread from the infested wood to surrounding timber?

Unlikely. Borer like softer un-treated sapwood timber with a reasonable level of moisture in it. They’ve attacked the infested timber because it meets these criteria. They’ve probably moved into some untreated pine used as shelving or bracing for water pipes, or the odd bit of sapwood that was used in the original construction.

Most NZ homes are made with treated timber or harder heartwood timbers. These are unsuitable for borer habitation.

If harder heartwood becomes infested it is usually a maintenance issue rather than a borer issue. Weathered paint or water leaks that allow moisture to enter the timber and soften it enough for borer to attack.

Do borer bombs work?

No. Borer bombs will only kill the adult borer beetles that are out of the wood. It won’t kill the borer larvae that are doing the real damage inside the wood and the fumes will only be effective while they are present. These will usually clear out within an hour or two.

If you want advice on borer treatment and the options that will suit your home and property best, feel free to give Bug King team a call on 0800 54 64 54.

Borer inspections

A full inspection including getting in the roof space and under the sub-floor. Inspecting exposed internal timber and external weather-boards if required.

We will provide a report detailing the borer type, level and spread of the infestation and recommendations on borer treatment to gain control of any borer issues, including pricing.

If any major work is required, we encourage customers to get competing quotes using our borer report as a scoping document.

Internal borer flight season treatment

Treating internal timber is difficult as the active ingredient is unable to penetrate the timber due to paint and varnish.

A residual surface borer treatment can be applied to wooden surfaces throughout your home in October to kill any emerging adult borer beetles over the November to January flight season. This stops them laying eggs in the exit holes and breaks the borer life-cycle.

The treatment needs to be completed four years in a row as the borer life-cycle is 3-4 years.

Roof-space and sub-floor treatments

These are one-off borer treatments as the active ingredient can penetrate the bare timber. A treatment is applied directly to all timber surfaces. The treatment soaks into the timber and borer larvae and pupae are killed as they consume it.

The treatment will provide borer stopping power for at least 5 years.

For roof-space and sub-floor treatments, no preparation or aftercare is required.

Please note: insulation may need to be removed to fully access infested timber.

For internal treatments the following preparations need to be made;

• Cover or put away exposed foods like fruit bowls, etc.
• Put clean dishes, tea towels and paper towels away. It’s OK to leave dishes out if they’re going to be washed. 
• Put away toothbrushes, towels and toilet paper
• Cover fish tanks and turn the pump off.
• Ensure pet food is covered or put away
• Pull the duvet up to cover all pillows on the bed and cover any cots.
• You will need to vacate your home for a minimum of 4 hours from the time the treatment is completed.

Aftercare for internal borer treatments;

• On return, enter your home and open windows and doors and allow to air for 10mins.
• Wipe down all food preparation surfaces. We recommend using rubber gloves while doing this and being conscious of not rubbing your eyes until the gloves are removed.

Our internal treatments use synthetic pyrethroids (which are based on natural pyrethrums). The products we use have been proven safe in sensitive situations over several decades. All treatments are professionally applied and are at a level that are very safe for humans and pets. All products are readily metabolized. If you do come into contact with the treatment it will just pass straight through you and not build up in your body over time.