Despite being called woodworm, it’s fair to wonder whether the bugs can eat through other materials found around the home. After all, if you’ve got a bad infestation, you’ll want to check all affected areas to ensure you’ve properly eradicated it.
So, can woodworm get through plastic? Generally, woodworm won’t be able to get through plastic. The material’s composition is a sufficient barrier to prevent woodworm from eating it, which is essentially what they use wood for. However, there might be some circumstances in which woodworm can penetrate plastic.
In this article, we’ll look in a bit more detail at whether woodworm can get through plastic.
Can Woodworm Eat Through Plastic?
Woodworm shouldn’t have any interest in trying to eat through plastic. There are a few reasons why this is the case.
First, they live in damp areas, specifically in damp wood. Plastic is resistant to damp because moisture can’t penetrate its surface. While you could have plastic in a damp area, the plastic item itself won’t get damp.
Second, woodworm use wood as a food source. They eat the cellulose in wood fibres, and everything else is a waste product. Plastic, unsurprisingly, doesn’t contain cellulose, so it’s not a desirable food source.
Third, it’s fair to assume that plastic is too hard for woodworm to chew through. Even if they had a reason to do so, the material’s structure won’t be easy to penetrate.
If you think how much easier it is to cut wood than plastic, you should have an idea of what it’d be like for woodworm to try and chew through it.
Can You Find Woodworm in Plastic?
You won’t commonly find woodworm in plastic. However, this isn’t to say that it’ll never happen, as there might be some very specific circumstances in which you find woodworm in plastic.
For example, a piece of plastic in an area affected with woodworm might have traces of the bugs in it or on it.
Although plastic is far more durable than wood, it can perish if it’s not resilient to the surrounding conditions. This typically appears as cracking or brittleness in the material.
If this happens, woodworm could enter the plastic looking for food or during the mating season. This is when woodworm leave the wood they live in as larvae, so it’s more common to see signs of an infestation during this period.
However, there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest that woodworm would choose to live in plastic. They might attempt to bore through the material in search of food, but this is about the extent of their interaction with plastic.
Woodworm and Plastic
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that woodworm don’t interact with plastic. As for whether they can get through it, the answer is generally no, but they might try to.
Because plastic is a far more resilient material than wood, they shouldn’t be able to get through it.
Of course, if you think you have any signs of woodworm in plastic around your home, speak to a professional woodworm exterminator to see what they think.
