Wood-Attacking Insects

The relentless advance of western civilization has involved, among other things, deforestation concomitant with construction of centrally heated homes, businesses, and other facilities in place of the once-extensive woodlands. The termites, carpenter ants, beetles, and other insects that formerly dwelled within woodlands, of course, proceeded to invade the structural lumber used in today’s construction. This lumber is obtained both from increasingly expensive hardwoods such as oak, hickory, ash, and maple, and from less desirable softwoods such as pine, hemlock, fir, redwood, and other evergreen trees. Both have a central, dark-colored, non-living heartwood and an outer light-colored, living sapwood, and both are susceptible to attack by wood-destroying insects, except for the heartwood of black locust, cypress, cedar, redwood, and certain other trees which is relatively resistant to attack.

Carpenter ants, termites, powderpost beetles, and the old house borer are among the many...