# Powderpost beetle

*Lyctinae and related subfamilies*

**Identification confidence:** Identifiable with care — The flour-fine frass is the separator from drywood termites and is checkable with a fingertip.

## How to recognise it

- The frass is extremely fine and talc-like, flowing freely like flour when disturbed — this is decisive against drywood termite pellets, which are hard and six-sided.
- Exit holes are small and round, 1 to 2 mm, resembling shot holes in the wood surface.
- Adults are small, narrow, flattened beetles 2 to 7 mm, reddish-brown to black.
- Damage is confined to hardwoods with large pores — oak, ash, hickory, walnut, and bamboo — and does not occur in softwood framing.

## What it leaves behind

- Fine flour-like powder beneath small round holes in hardwood flooring, trim, furniture, and cabinetry.
- Fresh powder that reappears after cleaning, which indicates active infestation rather than old damage.

## Why an infestation persists

Females lay into the open pores of hardwood, so only hardwoods with large vessels are susceptible and softwood framing is not at risk. Infestation usually arrives in the wood itself — in flooring, trim, or furniture — and the life cycle can take a year or more, which is why damage appears well after installation. Determining whether an infestation is still active matters more than the damage already visible.


## Where it occurs

Throughout the United States.

## What prevents it

- Reduce indoor humidity, since low moisture content in wood limits development.
- Use finished or sealed hardwood, which blocks egg-laying into open pores.
- Inspect unfinished hardwood and bamboo items before bringing them in.

## Commonly confused with

- **Drywood termite** (*Incisitermes spp. / Cryptotermes spp.*) — Fecal pellets are the defining evidence — hard, elongated, roughly 1 mm, six-sided in cross-section with concave faces, and they range from pale cream to dark brown regardless of the wood colour.

**Verdict:** monitor-and-assess. Establishing whether the infestation is active, and whether the wood is hardwood rather than framing, decides everything that follows.


Source: https://againstpest.shop/identify/wood-destroying-beetles/powderpost-beetle/