The deterioration of wood by wood-boring beetles / Wan Noraini W. Daud

For centuries wood has been one of the most common and easiest to use construction materials. It is used practically everywhere in housing and agricultural buildings, as posts, utility and telephone poles and many others. Wood is biological material and subject to decay, insect, and marine borer attack. Insects represent the second major category of organisms that destroy wood. Some insects use the wood as a food source, and a few use it for shelter. Biological deterioration could occur ranks the more common species for natural heartwood durability. It is the extractives, pitch, oil, and other extraneous substances deposited in the heartwood that give resistance to decay and insects, thus making certain species more durable than others. When the extractives lack toxic or repellent effects, the heartwood is no more resistant than sapwood.