Genuine infestations are far more likely in areas with high humidity, such as poorly-ventilated crawl spaces. Housing with central heating/air-conditioning tends to cut the humidity of wood in the living areas to less than half of natural humidity, thus strongly reducing the likelihood of an infestation. Infested furniture should be removed from the house before the infestation spreads.
The need to treat or immunise sapwood from lyctine beetles is greater in appearance grade products (for example, floor boards and architrave).
Also, the timber cut from plantation and regrowth forests tends to have higher proportions of sapwood, so that the need for immunisation in the southern states is increasing.
