The deathwatch beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum) gets its name from the tapping sound it makes when trying to attract a mate. In more superstitious times people living in old houses, keeping vigil by the sick beds of relatives, believed the sound to be a harbinger of death, hence the name.
That was a myth but the sound should set the alarm bells ringing for any owner of property containing old oak beams. These beetles can hollow them out and cause a collapse – as nearly happened in Westminster Hall in 1913.
They like oak that is more than 100 years old best, slightly softened by damp and fungus. If you cannot hear them in action, holes larger than those caused by normal woodworm are a telltale sign, but these could be centuries old. Filling them up with furniture wax and keeping an eye for new holes is a useful check. However, the beetles can gnaw away at wood for up to 10 years in the pupae stage before emerging as adults.
Once the adults have found each other by tapping inside the hollow beams they breed immediately and the gnawing begins again. Even modern methods of killing them do not seem to reach every beetle so very dry and solid timbers are the best defence. Even deathwatch beetles cannot chew through these.
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