Enemies of wood

Enemies of wood

Natural enemies of wood generally use it as a source of food and shelter or as a place of incubation for their young. However, not all of them find wood attractive for all these purposes. All living organisms have some very specific requirements for survival:

  • Source of food
  • Convenient moisture content
  • Air
  • Suitable temperature

If any one of these factors is reduced, the risk of attack by these agents will be eliminated.

Degrading Organisms

Degrading organisms can be divided into these major categories:

  1. Fungi
  1. Insects
  1. Marine borers
  1. Termites

Brown Rots are more often found attacking softwood timber and the lighter weight hardwoods.

Termite attack

The only way the growth of degrading organisms can be prevented is to limit their supply of food. This can be done by treating the timber with chemicals, toxic to these organisms, in order to make the timber unattractive as a food source.