Common furniture beetle

The common furniture beetle or common house borer(Anobium punctatum) is a woodboring beetle. In thelarval stage it bores in wood and feeds upon it. AdultAnobium punctatum measure 2.7–4.5 millimetres (0.11–0.18 in) in length. They have brown ellipsodial bodies with a prothorax resembling a monk's cowl 

The first step in pest control is prevention, and for this it is helpful to understand that Anobium punctatum only attacks seasoned sapwood timber, not live or fresh wood. Also, it usually does not attack heartwood timbers. This is readily observed from infested structures, where one piece of timber may be heavily attacked but an adjacent one left virtually untouched according to whether it is made from the heartwood or the sapwood part of a tree trunk. Infestations are also usually a problem of old wooden houses built with untreated timbers. Some building regulations state that timbers with more than 25% sapwood may not be used, so that wood borer infections can not substantially weaken structures.

Infection, past or present, is diagnosed by small round exit holes of 1 to 1.5 mm diameter. Active infections feature the appearance of new exit holes and fine wood dust around the holes.

Because of the 3–4 year life cycle of Anobium punctatum, timber or timber products bought containing an A. punctatum infection may not manifest holes until years after the timber has been acquired. Infestation can be controlled by application of a residual insecticide (such as permethrin) to infected areas, by professional fumigation, or by replacing infected timber.  Simple aerosol insecticide sprays will only kill the adult borer on the wing but not the burrowing larvae, which remain relatively protected inside infected timbers.