The main insects that moth the wood are termites and beetles. Termites are more widespread and more harmful than beetles.
Termites are insects that live in seclusion and live in groups. There are more than 2,000 species in the world, and nearly 100 species in China, mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Basin and the warm and humid areas in the south. Termites use wood as their main food, but also inseparable from moisture, and their life is photophobia, to eat outside the nest, all travel in the dirt built in the ant road. Therefore, nesting is often built in places where there are wooden components or wood products close to water sources. Therefore, wood components in dark and damp parts such as kitchens and bathrooms are most susceptible to termite erosion.
Common wood-damaging beetles in China are the domestic lynx, the houseweed lynx, the whitefish and the beetle. The larvae feed on the fibers of the wood, and the larvae moth into a tunnel in the wood, pupate at the end of the tunnel after aging, and the adults feather and bite out an oval hole and fly out. It mainly harms broad-leaved trees such as casuarina. Whitefish and beetles feed on the starch and sugars of wood, so they mainly use sapwood that harms broad-leaved trees. Adults prefer to lay eggs in tube holes on the surface of the wood. Therefore, oak trees with large tube holes, pecans, locusts and other tree species suffer the most. The larvae moth the inside of the wood into a powder form, leaving only a thin shell, and the surface is densely covered with small insect eyes, often surrounded by powdery moth chips.
Beetles mainly attack dry wood with low moisture content, while termites are more harmful to wet wood. Therefore, the structural moisture-proof measures are taken to cut off the wooden components from the water source, which has a certain effect on reducing the harm of termites. However, structural moisture resistance is only an auxiliary measure to prevent insects, and where there are termites or beetles, wood structures and wood products are treated with insect repellents.
Tree species such as nan, rosewood, teak and other trees have strong termite resistance, and fir, willow, camphor, etc. also have certain termite resistance, but most tree species are susceptible to termite damage, such as masson pine is most susceptible to termite moth erosion. Therefore, for wood structures or wood products made of tree species that are susceptible to termite damage, they must be treated with insect repellents.
In order to ensure the durability of the wooden structure, all countries in the world are currently using drugs that can prevent both corrosion and insects. If the borophenol compound formulated with boric acid, borax and sodium pentachlorophenol is a water-soluble agent, the wood component can be soaked in the aqueous solution of the agent, if each cubic meter of wood can absorb 4.5 to 6 kg of the agent (dry agent weight), it can achieve the purpose of anti-corrosion and insect-proof. Since this agent is easily lost in contact with water, it is only suitable for wood components that are not damp. For wood components that are susceptible to moisture, oil-soluble pentachlorophenol, lindane mixture and so on should be used.