I came in this evening and my wife says 'I want to show you something'. She takes me to look at maybe 100+ really small holes over our back door. These holes are in the sheetrock. You can even tell there are some slight tunnels underneath the holes. The holes are about the size of PPB holes. Any ideas what this is?
Yellowjackets. If they get into the walls, they will eat your walls from the inside out. Get one of those roach bombs and rig it up with a tube to put into the wall. It will take care of them.
Well, maybe. But these holes are really small. Maybe 1/16"? If it is yellowjackets, we will have a mess on our hands as they aim to come in the house!
Termites will eat the paper but not the rock.
I don't know that they're the only ones, but I do know that Yellowjackets will eat the gypsum out of your wallboard. I suppose it could be a smaller cousin.
A couple of years ago, some Yellowjackets built a nest in the void behind our bathtub. We knew nothing about it until they started getting into the house via some of the nice house trailer joinery. I zapped them with a roach bomb, and they haven't been back. A while later, the cat started going into the bedroom, then showing up at the front door. After a few trips like that, I followed him and found a hole in the wall behind the bed. The 'jackets had eaten away all of the sheetrock and only left a sheet of wallpaper! The cat was going into the tub void and getting out through the oversized hole around the sewer drain. The whole affair caused a considerable boost in my blood pressure, but has been the source of some good laughs since then.
When we had our house built then moved in my son hollered from his bedroom and there was a large beetle with very long anteni on the wall next to a freshly borred hole in the sheet rock maybe 3/16" in diameter. :o He came right through the sheet rock and looked like he was licking his lips and ready to belch......just sittin there. :) :) Scared the heck out of my son but it was just a borrer turned beetle on his way out. Only one we saw. It was framed with Douglas Fir studs so I assumed it was the same beetle that are attacking the forests here in the West.
If the holes are filled in with mud its probably termites. When they release the new queens and drones they make tubes or tunnels to the highest point they can. If it happened inside you would have known about it, it would have been like a horror movie. But if it happened at night it might not have been seen. Check the window seals for sheded wings and call the fellow with the big roach on top of his truck. :)
Well, I just dug into one of the holes. The paper is not eaten. It is the gypsum that is hollowed out. I suppose I am going to call the pest guy and let him do something with it. We have a termite contract, but I can't convince myself that they are the problem. I wish there was a way to check on the soundness of the studs without tearing down the drywall. I could pretty easily rip out the damage and patch it without too much trouble.
If you are going to cut out the damaged area and patch, then just cut out a little extra to one of the studs and check it. It's fairly easy to cut a large enough hole (that is still easily patchable) between two studs such that you can get one of those mirrors on a long handle inside the wall.
Good luck! Let us know what you find out.
The bug man come by today. It is termites :o :o :o. All we can figure is that we were not here when they swarmed (we went on a cruise a couple weeks ago) and we are just now seeing the damage. Fortunately, we have a termite contract, but if there is structural damage, there may some repairs going on for a while. 2/3s of the back wall of our house has holes in the sheetrock :o
Are you sure it's not Gypsum moths? :D We had the same thing in our hall closet- turned out to be subterranean termites. Luckily, they had not gone far.
Ouch. Glad you caught it when you did.
Quote from: Left Coast Chris on May 02, 2008, 12:47:39 AM
When we had our house built then moved in my son hollered from his bedroom and there was a large beetle with very long anteni on the wall next to a freshly borred hole in the sheet rock maybe 3/16" in diameter. :o He came right through the sheet rock and looked like he was licking his lips and ready to belch......just sittin there. :) :) Scared the heck out of my son but it was just a borrer turned beetle on his way out. Only one we saw. It was framed with Douglas Fir studs so I assumed it was the same beetle that are attacking the forests here in the West.
That's about the funniest thing I've read all week. :D :D :D
DanG, that must have been a one way cat door, did you ever let him out only to have him back inside again? :D
Dave
I got a straight pin and skewered him and mounted the body for display. The bettle was probably 7/8" long with 1" anteni. There was even sheet rock shavings on the carpet. For his size and weight I can't even imagine how much stronger than a human he was. I was pretty careful not to get my fingers in front of his front pinchers. We had allot of respect for him. :o :o
Mike have you got the problem under control? Sorry to hear bout the infestation.
Okie,
When we lived in AR we bought our first house. It came with a termite contract, but had a shop that was not covered. I wound up having to jack that shop up, cut the bottom 30" off the wall and set it back down on a new concrete block wall because of termites. When we bought this house, it did not have a termite contract. Getting termite bond was the first thing we did when we purchased the house. Now, I am glad we did.
The contractor will contact us next week to tear into the wall to assess damage. The repair should cost us nothing, but it will be a major pain if there is structural damage. I'll post pictures.