Woodworm :S

Heather · 03-04-2015, 01:27 AM

I was just looking online for some wooden toys and I stumbled across this thread:

Woodlands Adventure Playground - Woodworm

A few weeks ago I was looking at a wooden house in pets at home and there was some kind of beetle thing in it and I dropped it in fright. I didn't actually say anything to the staff because I thought it was just a bug that had gotten inside the packaging, but now I just googled woodworm beetle and it's just what it looked like. I feel so itchy!

Willow Wisp · 03-04-2015, 02:52 AM

Arghhhh that's awful, I can't stop scratching now, yuk!

Pebbles82 · 03-04-2015, 03:00 AM

I'm a bit paranoid about this as I also read of someone's wood house having woodworm and also bought a house which had worm holes in. So now anything wood I buy I put in the freezer in a plastic bag for 48 hours - that way any living thing in it is blooming dead!

Heather · 03-04-2015, 03:01 AM

I knowwww, I'll be checking everything I buy from now on!

Heather · 03-04-2015, 03:02 AM

Oh that's a great idea! Ill be freezing everything now!!

Pebbles82 · 03-04-2015, 03:04 AM

Lol - I freeze everything first. Hay houses, wood bendy sticks, the lot. The only thing I haven't frozen first is food because that might be dangerous if there are some fresh ingredients in there (like egg eg). And I don't freeze bedding either. Just wood and hay. Never had a problem, but the lady I read about with the woodworm in a house (which she thought was a 'distressed' look, said it got into her furniture! So that was it - I freeze it.

Heather · 03-04-2015, 03:09 AM

Oh god this really is making me so paranoid! I have natural wood things in the cages now, I guess I'd have noticed by now if they were infested...hopefully :S. I've just had a wooden wheel delivered, that isn't the natural kind of wood and looks pretty clean, do you think that's safe??

Heather · 03-04-2015, 03:10 AM

I can see my mum coming home to a freezer full of hamster toys at this rate I'm so itchy!!

Pebbles82 · 03-04-2015, 03:12 AM

I think the smooth wood like that is fine - I have the Karlie Wonderland wood wheel and didn't freeze that - there is nothing visible and some of it is probably plywood anyway. It seems to be the 'natural' wood stuff with bark on. I think the smooth wood has been planed and treated. Sorry, didn't mean to alarm you! I shouldn't worry about anything that's already in there - you'd have known about it if there had been anything. Maybe we're depriving our hammies of some tasty bugs though, by killing anything dead lol! I just didn't want the risk of woodworm or mites.

Heather · 03-04-2015, 03:16 AM

Yes that's the one that's just been delivered, it was in the box with a bendy stick thing though so I think I'll be freezing that

. Ethel was so offended when I offered him a mealworm, I think he'd react like me if there were bugs in his cage!

Did you paint your wheel by the way? I'm not sure if it needs treating or anything.