Pine Sawyer Beetle

Pine Sawyer Beetle-                    Chelan and East Wenatchee Home and Real Estate Inspection Services

Is your home inspector a structural pest inspector? If you are hiring home inspector you should inquire if they are a structural pest inspector. Proper identification of structural pest is every bit as important as being able to properly identify structural, electrical and plumbing issues.

During a recent inspection I came across an interesting character. It was an adult Pine Sawyer Beetle.

Did you know that there are more than 800,000 species of insects on earth, more than all the other plants and animals combined? Of this great number of insects, nearly half are beetles.

The pine sawyer is one of the largest beetles in the North America. It belongs to the long-horned beetle family (Cerambycidae). The large, pale larva can be up to 2 1/2 inches long and the adults can be over 3 inches long (This one was a good 3 inches or better).

They mainly feed on the wood of fallen logs and old conifer stumps. The adults usually emerge in early summer and usually live from 3 to 5 months. They are nocturnal and are attracted to lights.

The adults lay eggs in crevices in the bark of the snags, logs, and stumps of Douglas fir, pines, firs, and redwoods. Larvae excavate large tunnels within the sapwood and heartwood.

Pine Sawyers role in the ecology is to significantly increase the rapidity of wood decomposition by mining large burrows into the heartwood. Unfortunately, they can also greatly diminish the value of salvage timber where they are abundant.

Their habitat is mountain forests of the western states and north to British Columbia.

They do not re-infest sound lumber and are best controlled in the manufacturing process via kiln drying to kill the larvae. Infestations of these types of beetles in the home are seldom extensive enough to cause any serious structural damage.

Proper identification of wood destroying insects is a very important role of my business. Knowing what is a re-infesting insect versus a non re-infesting insect is very important. Treatment and ramifications of the damage can be very different.

  “If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”

Red Adair

NCW Home Inspections, LLC  is a Licensed Washington State Home Inspection service located in Wenatchee Washington serving Chelan County, Douglas County, Kittitas County, Okanogan County and Grant County Washington and the cities of Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Cashmere, Oroville, Cle Elum, East Wenatchee, Quincy and many more…

www.ncwhomeinspections.com                                               509-670-9572