Bellingham WA Home Inspection (King of the House): Little Round Holes In The Logs

The photo below is something you prefer not to see at a log home. A log home, by its very nature, is more prone to possible problems with wood destroying insects and wood destroying organisms than most types of homes. The other problem is that it can be hard to impossible, based on the size of the logs, to know what is under the surface. The exit holes in the log, 1/8" in size and round are obviously from the anobiid beetle. This pest reinfests and, over time, can turn any home to a pile of gritty powder. A problem with finding them in a location like this is it can be hard to identify if they are still active or not. Under a conventional home, where we usually find them in crawl space lumber, it seems they are usually active and an inspector is likely to see fine frass coming out of the emergence holes. That almost always means they are active and some adult beetles recently exited. But at this log house, there was no frass around the holes and the holes looked older and weathered. On the other hand, the anobiid will infest wood that has a moisture content over 13% so they certainly could find an exterior log appealing. Another group of wood borers (meaning the beetle family) that invade log homes include the buprestid and cerambycid beetles. While these insects leave larger holes, they do not reinfest so the damage, or potential damage, is less. It goes without saying that those folks owning log homes also need to beware of the ants and termites that might want to do some chewing or eating on the home. Log houses are much harder to inspect, and more risky as far as liability, and that is why many home inspectors will not agree to inspect a log home.

Thanks for looking.

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