freckles1970

Hope someone may be able to offer some advice.

I am taking mainly antique furniture over to OZ in my container. There are two items, one in particular, that have signs off previous woodworm. These have been treated by myself when I restored the funiture (even though the bugs had long gone).

I had three removal companies over yesterday to do quotes and only one of them mentioned that this may cause a problem. They told me a huge yarn about how it could cost me thousands of dollars if they need to be destroyed. I am not sure this is the case as anyone in the know about these things would be very aware that there are no creatures left and no dust piles being left on a daily basis either which is a huge tell tale sign (and one that would be very evident after a couple of months at sea!)

The question is this....the removal firm suggested that I now need to get a proffesional at this end to re treat them and produce a certificate stating this has been done. Does anyone know if this is really necessary, and if so what companies have been used before to do this?

I figure if this really will cause a problem and it is expensive to sort out at this end I will leave the items here, would just rather know in advance of the move.

Any advice would be great

Pollyana

Even if they are treated in the UK before shipment, AQIS may still require them to be retreated here. If they inspect the furniture and think there is a woodworm problem they will want to fumigate at your cost. Unfortunately as you'll see from previous AQIS threads on here, no-one can predict what they will do, they are a law unto themselves.

Dorothy

As Polly said, it's up to AQIS. However, we brought our dining room and bedroom furniture with us which is all made from reclaimed barnboards. It's got plenty of old woodworm damage and it went through customs just fine. It's been treated, milled, made into furniture, stained and varnished, so I think they could probably tell it wasn't a new infestation.

flodsfive

We had a longcase clock that had previous woodworm and it came through no problems, However, about a year earlier my brother came over with a piece of furniture that had old wood worm damage and they fumigated it. It cost him $150 and he got it a few weeks after everything else.

Hope this helps.

MrCro

they look for new dust to indicate active worms, alot of tapping and knocking goes on and that is as technical as it gets! in my experience anyway (on one occasion!)


my tip is to knock and tap out as much as you can before packing and then you will know if any active worms!

putting my carpenters head on for one min you could pop in a little super glue carefully into any worm holes which will guarantee no dust coming out b4 packing!!! Unless the little buggers then eat new holes in the container that is!

like others have said it seems to be luck of the draw! On another occasion the AQIS guy at the building next to Sydney airport (where I had to go to clear my sea freight) asked me if any wooden items in my 1m2 pallet I sent and when I said yes a clock and picture frame he said "SO IS THAT NO WOOD MATE?" and dopey me said yes clock and picture frames so again he said "SO NO WOOD!" then I got it and agreed so he stamped my paperwork as all clear and I went to collect my pallet from botany bay without any inspection!

James516

Don't worry AQIS will just incinerate the items and you will only be charged about $25-50. Easy Peasy. You can get some nice replacement stuff from Super A-mart.

OzSheila

Most of our furniture is old English and European pine, some pieces have quite a bit of woodworm evidence. The furniture is not varnished - just waxed. I made enquiries about getting it treated in the UK (2005) and as someone else has said AQIS could not guarantee that it would be accepted here.

We took a chance and luckily it paid off - all our furniture got thru - altho they did find some moss on a nativity decoration which we had to pay some ridiculous amount of money to have incinerated.

Luck of the draw I am afraid. Perhaps just budget to have it treated here on arrival if AQIS so decide.

HTH

freckles1970

Thanks for the advice. I have decided to sell the piece here that is most badly affected with holes just to be on the safe side.

tony4563

So what type of wood is allowed through? I have some hifi speakers which are MDF in construction, which I want to take. Do I have to declare them? They are brand new.

MrCro

MDF is fine as you can even use that to build crates to protect TV etc as long as it is UK sourced.

Be careful declaring it as brand new though as customs may charge you tax!

Items should all be at least over 12months old so as not to be taxed!

tony4563

Thanks for that.

Not a word to customs lol

Pollyana

That kind of wood is fine, just declare it as a wooden item and you're fine AQIS may insepct it, but they may not bother.