Bugs made a meal of housewife's new dining table
BY SIMON DE BRUXELLES
The London Times
September 29, 2000
A HOUSEWIFE has won a refund from a discount store after she was challenged to prove that beetles she discovered inside her new dining table were there when she bought it.
Sue Breading turned amateur entomologist after Argos refused to accept responsibility for the infestation. The company told her that to claim a refund she would have to prove that the beetle larvae were in the table when she bought it last July. After consulting experts at the Natural History Museum, Mrs Breading dug out a handful of wriggling larvae and sent the sample to London for identification.
Experts from the museum were able to identify the larvae as Bostrychydea, commonly known as the powder post borer, a beetle common in Thailand but which has never been recorded in Britain. Faced with the evidence Argos eventually agreed to give Mrs Breading and her husband, Brian, a refund of £389.98. The company has also agreed to pay for pest control experts to remove the table.
Mrs Breading said yesterday that her battle with Argos required 20 phone calls and numerous letters. "I still cannot get over the thought that while we were eating our dinner off the top of the table all these bugs were eating away at the bottom.
"My two daughters, Jessica and Mollie, are seven and two and would have had nightmares if they had seen those larvae writhing around. We only got the table in July and we kept finding a fine powder underneath it each morning. At first we thought it was just sawdust but every day there was more and more.
"When Brian went underneath to have a look he found a big hole and inside the hole he found a dead beetle and lots of live larvae. We took out 25 but there were more we could not reach. I rang up Argos and they said they would only give a refund if we could show the bugs had been there when we bought the table."
Even when it received a copy of the report from the Natural History Museum, Argos quibbled. Mrs Breading said: "I sent Argos a copy of the report and they offered us a new table, but after what we had been through I demanded a full refund. Even then I had to argue about having the old table picked up. The only good thing is that we have been told that these bugs cannot live on English wood so there is no danger of them spreading."
A spokesman for Argos apologised yesterday and said that Mrs Breading should not have been asked to ascertain the origin of the infestation.
He said that the store would be offering her a refund or a replacement table.
From: www.thetimes.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/09/29/timnwsnws01007.html
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A drawing of the adult culprit (not to scale, of course).
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Powder post beetles are so called because in high numbers they are able to turn the inside of a piece of wood into nothing more than a mass of powder. Powder post beetles are small (1/8 inch) and the adult beetles are seldom seen. Most of the life cycle is spent in the grub stage eating wood. This stage can last between 1-10 years depending upon a number of factors including; species of beetle, type of wood infested, age of wood, moisture content of wood and air temperature. People do not realize that the wood is infested until the adult beetles emerge from within the wood. The exit holes are very small, about the size of a pin head. When the wood is tapped with a hammer dust will fall from these exit holes.
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The behavior of powder post borer DInoderus minutus in boring bamboo.
by : Noerdjito, A.E.
Two years field observation on a powder post borer beatle, D. minutus in Bogor, Sukabumi and its vicnity revealed that the beatle is not only found in wood, but bamboo also. There were 12 kinds of wood and two kinds of bamboo attacked by the beatle. Besides wood and bamboo, the beatle is also able to survive on materials such as dried cassava. The breeding test of. D. minutus on various kinds of bamboo in the laboratory demostrated that the beatle is able to breed well. But the beatle showed an optimal breeding in dried cassava.
[This message has been edited by Chris S. (edited 09-29-2000).]
BY SIMON DE BRUXELLES
The London Times
September 29, 2000
A HOUSEWIFE has won a refund from a discount store after she was challenged to prove that beetles she discovered inside her new dining table were there when she bought it.
Sue Breading turned amateur entomologist after Argos refused to accept responsibility for the infestation. The company told her that to claim a refund she would have to prove that the beetle larvae were in the table when she bought it last July. After consulting experts at the Natural History Museum, Mrs Breading dug out a handful of wriggling larvae and sent the sample to London for identification.
Experts from the museum were able to identify the larvae as Bostrychydea, commonly known as the powder post borer, a beetle common in Thailand but which has never been recorded in Britain. Faced with the evidence Argos eventually agreed to give Mrs Breading and her husband, Brian, a refund of £389.98. The company has also agreed to pay for pest control experts to remove the table.
Mrs Breading said yesterday that her battle with Argos required 20 phone calls and numerous letters. "I still cannot get over the thought that while we were eating our dinner off the top of the table all these bugs were eating away at the bottom.
"My two daughters, Jessica and Mollie, are seven and two and would have had nightmares if they had seen those larvae writhing around. We only got the table in July and we kept finding a fine powder underneath it each morning. At first we thought it was just sawdust but every day there was more and more.
"When Brian went underneath to have a look he found a big hole and inside the hole he found a dead beetle and lots of live larvae. We took out 25 but there were more we could not reach. I rang up Argos and they said they would only give a refund if we could show the bugs had been there when we bought the table."
Even when it received a copy of the report from the Natural History Museum, Argos quibbled. Mrs Breading said: "I sent Argos a copy of the report and they offered us a new table, but after what we had been through I demanded a full refund. Even then I had to argue about having the old table picked up. The only good thing is that we have been told that these bugs cannot live on English wood so there is no danger of them spreading."
A spokesman for Argos apologised yesterday and said that Mrs Breading should not have been asked to ascertain the origin of the infestation.
He said that the store would be offering her a refund or a replacement table.
From: www.thetimes.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/09/29/timnwsnws01007.html
+++++
A drawing of the adult culprit (not to scale, of course).
+++++
Powder post beetles are so called because in high numbers they are able to turn the inside of a piece of wood into nothing more than a mass of powder. Powder post beetles are small (1/8 inch) and the adult beetles are seldom seen. Most of the life cycle is spent in the grub stage eating wood. This stage can last between 1-10 years depending upon a number of factors including; species of beetle, type of wood infested, age of wood, moisture content of wood and air temperature. People do not realize that the wood is infested until the adult beetles emerge from within the wood. The exit holes are very small, about the size of a pin head. When the wood is tapped with a hammer dust will fall from these exit holes.
+++++
The behavior of powder post borer DInoderus minutus in boring bamboo.
by : Noerdjito, A.E.
Two years field observation on a powder post borer beatle, D. minutus in Bogor, Sukabumi and its vicnity revealed that the beatle is not only found in wood, but bamboo also. There were 12 kinds of wood and two kinds of bamboo attacked by the beatle. Besides wood and bamboo, the beatle is also able to survive on materials such as dried cassava. The breeding test of. D. minutus on various kinds of bamboo in the laboratory demostrated that the beatle is able to breed well. But the beatle showed an optimal breeding in dried cassava.
[This message has been edited by Chris S. (edited 09-29-2000).]