How to Eliminate Woodworm with Vinegar

It is very likely that if you have found your furniture damaged by woodworm you do not have specific products to combat the plague. However, there are homemade products with incredible properties that can be very useful.

Vinegar does help to eliminate woodwormhowever, it is more likely to work if you use it to support another treatment. The best treatment is usually the use of a specific product sold in hardware stores, a liquid that is inserted into the wood with the help of an injection. However, it is also possible to combine vinegar with a heat treatment, since woodworm only survives at certain temperatures.

At what temperature does woodworm die?

Woodworm can survive in temperatures ranging from 10º to 40º. Thus, woodworm does not survive below 0º, so at these temperatures the plague would die within a maximum of 24 hours.

The same happens with temperatures that range between 50º and 80º, since depending on the thickness of the wood, the pest could eradicate in less than two hours.

Taking this into account, from UNCOMO we recommend that you use vinegar to eliminate woodworm along with a heat or cold treatment if you do not have specific products from the hardware store. Here we explain how to eliminate woodworm from your furniture both only with vinegar and with other treatments, keep reading!

Before starting, we advise you to check if the infection is activeWell, this way you will know if the woodworm is really alive inside your wood. To do this, check that the woodworm holes have a yellowish powder; if so, it means that the termites are currently eating the wood. If you want to eliminate woodworm with vinegar without other products, follow these steps:

1. Once you have checked the status of your pest, clean the wood well. Especially focus on the corners and corners, as this is where the larvae usually act.
2. In a container, pour a glass of White vinegar with two tablespoons of alcohol.
3. Get a brush large enough for the furniture you want to treat and soak it in the mixture.
4. As if you were painting, run the brush all over the furniture, emphasizing the holes caused by woodworm and in the corners.
5. With whatever mixture you have left, take a syringe and fill it up. Keep in mind that there must be much more vinegar than alcohol.
6. Insert the syringe through the holes in the cabinet and pour a few drops into each of them.
7. When you’re done, wrap the treated furniture with plastic wrap.
8. Wait 24 hours and repeat the same process. For more security, we advise do it a third time, as this way you will make sure to kill any woodworm that may have survived.
9. Once all the treatment is finished, clean your furniture well and try to maintain it so that it does not become infected again.

If you have a special product to eliminate woodworm, you will have to fill a syringe with the liquid obtained at the hardware store and insert it through the holes in the cabinet. When you are finished, we advise you to brush the wood with vinegar to finish cleaning it and prevent re-infection. You may also be interested in these other 10 uses of vinegar as an ecological household cleaner.

You should know that in case the infection affects the structure of your house more seriously, we recommend that you request the help of professionals who fight these types of pests. So, if you want to know how to remove woodworm from beams or how to remove woodworm from parquet, vinegar and other homemade products may not work for you.

However, these tricks will eliminate your pest completely if it is other objects or wooden furniture. So, we show you other home remedies to eliminate woodworm.

How to remove woodworm with vinegar and heat

We have already seen that woodworm will hardly survive high temperatures, so if you have white vinegar and a heat gun, the days of the plague are numbered.

1. Make sure your furniture can withstand high temperatures. Minimum 80º.
2. With the gun, heat all areas of the wood.
3. This must reach 70º and the heat should stay for a few minutes.
4. When you’re done, run a brush with white vinegar all over the furniture.

If you don’t have a heat gun, you can also heat your furniture with a hair dryer for a few minutes. Of course, in this case, the furniture cannot be very large, since it would take too long to heat the wood enough. After heating with a dryer, we advise you spraying a woodworm insecticide all over the furniture.

How to eliminate woodworm with vinegar and cold

Woodworm also does not survive very cold temperatures, so if you have a large freezer, you can wrap the affected furniture in plastic and leave it there. During two days. After that time, you will only have to remove the plastic from the wood and, once again, soak it with vinegar.

How to eliminate woodworm with tea tree

This option does not include vinegar, however, it is also interesting if you want to eliminate woodworm with home remedies.

1. Mix a small bottle of tea tree with 200 ml of white spirit.
2. Fill a syringe with this mixture and insert it into the holes in your furniture.
3. Empty the syringe into these holes.
4. The excess liquid can be used to soak the wood with a brush.

If you want more information on How to treat woodworm, be sure to visit this other oneHOWTO article.

Advice

• To prevent woodworm from appearing and destroying your furniture, varnish and wax them. This will act as a barrier that will prevent termites from killing your wood.