Something eating my wood-plank ceiling

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Start seeing some kind of dust on my coffee table and discover that it falling from above. I have pine planks ceiling in our living room and some insect has a very good lunch from it. Ceiling very high - more then 20 feet and I don't have A-ladder that high to go there. This part of the ceiling not accessible from above ether.
Kind of stuck with what to do and how to fix it right now.
Please see picture, maybe you will recognize this creature. I check internet, it is not looks like termites.
IMG_2252.jpg
Thank you, Ed.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

I found something similar on internet - beetles?
And what to do with it?

Ed.

[Bill Dufour]

Time to have an exterminator tent the house.
Bill D

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Bill, I even afraid to think about it. It is only in one area above my coffee table. But all my ceiling covered with pine planks. Ouch.
Ed.

[Tom M King]

That high off the ground, I would check to make sure your roof doesn't have a small leak. We don't usually find Pine eating bugs that high, unless they are getting a water supply from above. Ortho Home Defense will kill them in localized spots, and not change the color of the wood, but no idea how to suggest how to get it up there. You may be able to rent a platform step ladder that has a 13 foot standing platform.

[Frederick Skelly]

Eduard, if it were my home, I would call a pest control company and see what they think. You might even call two different companies to get a second opinion.
Fred

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Fred, this is our second home, located in the middle of nowhere literally. I would definitely will check for pest control, thank you for reminding me that. But I doubt it will be two companies in the area, maybe one if I am lucky.

Tom, thank you for the tip. I will check roof, but it is ever higher than ceiling and high pitch metal roof. I will try to use drone to fly very close to surface of the roof and make pictures.

Ed.

[Bill Dufour]

you say you cannot get to either side of the wood so you really have no choice except fumigation which will reach up to the attic

[Tom M King]

If it's a metal roof with exposed fasteners, it will be hard to find the offending screw with a drone. I get called to do this more than I really want to, but I'm usually the last resort. If one of the little cups that goes over the neo washer is inverted, a screw put in on an angle, or one in a crack that didn't get a good bite, that's usually it, but they have to be examined closely by hand and eye. I replace that screw with a larger sized stainless steel one if it's not in a crack.

Home Defense sprayed in the holes on the surface will kill them, but the water source needs to be stopped.

[Mark Daily]

Edward, you might try sending that photo to pest control companies, as they are scarce in your area. Or maybe a university extension department to at least identify the bug.
Once you know what it is, it is easier to determine how to treat it.

Please keep us posted as your solution may be useful to others in the future.

[Kev Williams]

Looks to be a moth caterpillar, and best I can tell from the pics in the link below, looks like a 'winter moth' caterpillar, and a little googling says they eat leaves and trees, so...
http://www.eastscotland-butterflies.org.uk/caterpillars_Hedge,%20Scrub%20&%20Carr.html

[Bill Dufour]

[QUOTE=Tom M King;2935267]If it's a metal roof with exposed fasteners, it will be hard to find the offending screw with a drone. I get called to do this more than I really want to, but I'm usually the last resort. If one of the little cups that goes over the neo washer is inverted, a screw put in on an angle, or one in a crack that didn't get a good bite, that's usually it, but they have to be examined closely by hand and eye. I replace that screw with a larger sized stainless steel one if it's not in a crack.

When you look with a drone to you land at each suspicious screwhead to get a stable closeup in focus look. Or do you try to hover in place?
Bill D

More words to make minimum it says I only have 10 characters?

[Tom M King]

I don't use a drone. Just my eyes, and fingers, with a complicated setup with never a step off the ground without a safety.

I tell people to start with that I don't want to do it, and charge double my normal rate, but some still end up getting me to do it. I tell them I don't charge anything if I can't find the problem, but have never not found, and corrected the problem.

Exposed fastener roofs used to not be a problem, when screws were made in the US, and were installed with 18v drills. When they came out with 18v impact drivers was about the time we started getting calls.

I won't use an exposed fastener roof at our place any more. I'm getting ready to put standing seam on Pam's garden, and chicken coop house. We have a metal panel manufacturer locally, and the material cost is not that much more, like it is if you order it from a middle man, like Lowes. It's some more work to fold the lower edge, and set a ridge cap, but not That much more time. It just requires some specialized equipment.

This picture shows a safety setup for a similar repair, but not on an exposed fastener roof. Whoever installed this metal shingle roof made some mistake with the valley. Lower ladder is to set stainless eye screw in 4x8 lookout under soffit to use to tie next ladder. Line on roof to left of roof ladder is tied to tractor on other side of house for safety to harness. Roof ladders have big shepards hooks at top that can be pulled over any ridge, and flipped. 3800 lb. trailer is parked where it is for belay point. Those chimneys are 43 feet tall.

edited to add: Please note that I only work within 10 miles, or so, of home, or don't have an answer for my most asked question of "who can I get to.....".

[roger wiegand]

Contact the entomology department at your closest ag school. They should be able to at least tell you exactly what the bug is.

[Jim Koepke]

More words to make minimum it says I only have 10 characters?

In my experience spaces count as characters.

See next post as an example.

jtk