EUROPEAN HOUSE BORER

History

EHB was first discovered in Europe – hence the name European House Borer. However, the pest has since been found in the Middle East (Turkey), North Africa, South Africa, South America, USA, China and Asia Minor. EHB probably made its way into Western Australia in a piece of imported timber as a larva and continued to spread from there.

In South Africa, EHB was first discovered in pine plantations before infesting structural pine in houses and buildings. About 90 per cent of house roofs in suburbs adjacent to these plantations became infested, which resulted in large scale collapse.

EHB has been detected several times in Eastern Australia but those infestations were eradicated by fumigation. Eastern Australia did not have the problem of large scale infestation in pine trees and dead wood material.

In Western Australia, a single female EHB was found on 19 January 2004, emerging from a 200mm x 240mm beam in a house in the Perth suburb of Parkerville.