A Conversation for A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Peer Review: A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 1

Bluebottle

Entry: A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again) - A87942838
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

A Flea Market Rescue of:
Entry: A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again) - A87922623
Author: almoner99 - U15002866

I've tried to keep this entry in almoner99's original style and words and just tweak the GuideML. Consequently, the final Edited version should not credit me as an author, I'll just take an 'Additional Research By' credit.

<BB<


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 2

minorvogonpoet

This is written in such a lively style it avoids being dull. Well done.smiley - smiley

We have an old house in France that has oak beams and I suspect something is eating them. smiley - erm The locals talk about Capricorns but I'm not sure what they are...


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 3

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

This is lovely. smiley - smiley Makes you laugh, teaches you something you might need to know. I love the scientific names.

I would suggest tweaking the phrase 'treating the rest with some seriously heavy-duty jollop', as 'jollop' is not comprehensible outside the UK.smiley - laugh I'm imagining trying to find 'jollop' at the hardware store, much to the confusion of George, the owner...

I also can't get Eoin Colfer out of my head. He invented some bad guys who ended up as wood worms by metempsychosis. My favourite example of poetic justice. smiley - winkeye


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 4

bobstafford

What region of France are yousmiley - smiley


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 5

bobstafford

This will explain, its a beetle whos young can cause problems

https://jardinage.lemonde.fr/dossier-1278-capricorne-insecte.html


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 6

SashaQ - happysad

Well rescued, <BB< - this deserves to be in the Edited Guide indeed smiley - ok

Just a few minor things to suggest:

"small, lemon shaped pellets. They're not keen on painted or varnished timber" - 'they' should be 'woodworms'

"insurance backed guarantees" - "insurance-backed guarantees"

In the 'Don't' section there's more than one 'it' and 'them' - perhaps put 'Leave it...' first, then 'Hack away...', then 'Swear...', and then 'Attack them with a flamethrower(!)'?

I wonder if footnotes are needed to give some examples of softwood and hardwood?

Well done to almoner99, too smiley - ok


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 7

Tavaron da Quirm - Arts Editor

smiley - smiley a very informative Entry

The only thing that I think should be added is where these species live. Would I also encounter them in Central Europe or do they only live in the UK? Or do some live everywhere across the world?


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 8

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Deathwatch beetles are found around the world. Mark Twain mentioned them in "Tom sawyer." Someone wrote a poem about them in 1088. Sic transit gloria mundia.
http://www.westernexterminator.com/occasional-invaders/deathwatch-beetle/

The British Isles have 68 species of Longhorn beetles. http://www.greatfen.org.uk/wildlife/inverts/longhorns




A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 9

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

The common furniture beetles is found in Northern Europe, New Zealand, and the eastern coast of North America.
http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/woodworm/woodworm.htm


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 10

Tavaron da Quirm - Arts Editor

smiley - cheers Maybe you could add that to your Entry?

I once visited an open air museum with historic houses where they had basically wrapped a whole house in plastic for some bug treatment. It was interesting to see but certainly nothing you want to do at home.


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 11

Bluebottle

Happy St Swithun's Day! The most important meteorological day of the year. And according to St Swithun we're having another 40 days of summer, hurraysmiley - wow

St Swithun's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twil rain no more!

Anyway, I've made some tweaks - even a smiley - musicalnote about Jollup. I don't know, Dmitri, I go to lots of trouble to explain what Jollup is in smiley - thepost and you still don't know... A87893987

These days I doubt beetles smiley - ant respect national borders that much. With cars, smiley - bus and aircraft carrying people and cargo all around the smiley - earth and buying products from another country online a daily occurrence, beetles from anywhere in the world probably end up anywhere else in the world all the time.

<BB<


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 12

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

smiley - laugh Part of my educational background is in Anglo Saxon. One of my professors studied with FP Magoun, a renowned medievalist. According to her, Prof Magoun told them they'd always have to look up the weirder words.

'Anglo Saxon is not a memorable language,' was his comment. smiley - winkeye

Beetles may not respect boundaries, but I'll bet there are still general territories.


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 13

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Not that this is directly relevant to the guide article, but....

Asian Longhorned beetles are a terrible invasive pest here in the U.S Northeast.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/invasion-of-the-longhorn-beetles-145061504/


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 14

Bluebottle

Okay, I've added a little more detail. Obviously no-one wants the entry to read 'Woodworm can be found in the following 167 countries…' so I've summarised, but generally the guidance is that these insects can survive in Temperate climates (which I've defined in the entry). But I doubt that anyone's first thought when they discover deathwatch in their house is 'I wonder whether this insect can be found in Greenland, Gibraltar, Bermuda, the Falkland Islands, Menorca and other islands that the Isle of Wight finished ahead of in the 2019 Island Games'

<BB<


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 15

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Good point. I think the reason for wanting to know where these bugs occur is that not everyone who reads guide entries will live in the U.K. If the possible insects are not known to live where you are, you can rule them out as possibilities and move along to the next possibility.


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 16

Bluebottle

I *think* only woodworm is actually native to the UK. The others aren't native species but might turn up simply because wood gets imported from all around the smiley - earth, and has done for centuries. The English longbow was made from predominantly imported Yew in the Middle Ages. Before the 1950s Britain's railway carriages were made from Teak from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Burma. With wooden ships sailing the seas for centuries, any insect that can eat wood has probably gone anywhere that a ship has gone to, and similarly anywhere that a railway carriage has gone to. If you have a pest in your home it is academic if the beetle was originally from America or Asia – either way you want it outsmiley - shrug

The advice wherever the smiley - ant is from is still smiley - dontpanic and instead contact a reputable, qualified expert whose job it is to know the details and how to best proceed, which remains the same wherever on smiley - earth you are.

<BB<


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 17

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Okay, point taken. smiley - smiley


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 18

BobI

It might be a typo about the hard and soft wood - I have seen woodworm holes in oak, beech and mahogany furniture, especially around joints held together with animal glue.


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 19

Bluebottle

Hmmm - the wording is 'not overly fond of most hardwoods' which means they strongly prefer softwood rather than that they are never found in hardwood. But were they definitely woodworm and not a similar wood-boring beetle?

<BB<


A87942838 - A House Full of Boring Insects, or How not to Have Your House Eaten (Again)

Post 20

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

As general rule, beetles are boring unless they're ruining your house smiley - cross.


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