{"id":26840,"date":"2025-09-25T13:02:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T17:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?p=26840"},"modified":"2025-09-25T13:02:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T17:02:38","slug":"what-insect-is-damaging-our-hardwood-floor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2025\/09\/25\/what-insect-is-damaging-our-hardwood-floor\/","title":{"rendered":"What insect is damaging our hardwood floor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question:<\/span><\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve experienced some damage in our hardwood floor that look like a wood-boring beetle. What could it be?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Answer:<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture Outreach Professional<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
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Without a photo of the actual culprit, it’s tough to diagnose. However, I ran the pictures and information past our fantastic entomologist, Charlie Armstrong, who had the following to say:<\/p>\n

“I can’t figure out the ‘extra’ cratering around the actual smaller ‘holes’ that are visible. It reminds me more of carpenter ant damage than anything a wood-boring beetle would do. So I would want to be alert to the possibility of carpenter ants I think, especially if the wood is soft and there are any moisture or ‘rot’ issues underneath the floor. Tell them that with wood-boring beetles, they should only be seeing concise, well-defined holes without the other gouging that they have there. The holes would look like the ones in this fact sheet if they were caused by wood-boring beetles:\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/entomology.ca.uky.edu\/ef616″<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: We\u2019ve experienced some damage in our hardwood floor that look like a wood-boring beetle. What could it be?\u00a0 Answer: Jonathan Foster, Home Horticulture Outreach Professional Without a photo of the actual culprit, it’s tough to diagnose. However, I ran the pictures and information past our fantastic entomologist, Charlie Armstrong, who had the following to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask","category-pests"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat insect is damaging our hardwood floor? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2025\/09\/25\/what-insect-is-damaging-our-hardwood-floor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What insect is damaging our hardwood floor? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: We\u2019ve experienced some damage in our hardwood floor that look like a wood-boring beetle. 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