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WORMY

A form of "defect" or "character" (depending on how you look at it) in wood where there are numerous elongated "spots" throughout the wood where it has been eaten away by various boring agents (generally beetles but other boring insects as well). Sometimes the eaten away area is filled in by some kind of natural process so that there are no voids but just discolored areas. This is usually in the form of elongated worm-shaped areas, but may also occur as spots depending on the cut of the wood and other factors. NOTE: worm holes are quite common in wood and the presence of a few worm holes does not generally trigger the designation "wormy" which, as I said at the beginning of this paragraph, is usually reserved for wood with NUMEROUS worm holes. HOWEVER, not all wood vendors agree with or follow what I just said, so you may find "wormy" wood that doesn't have many worm holes.

In many trees, wormholes are far more likely in the sapwood than in the heartwood.

There is another form of wood degrade, pecky, that can look a lot like wormy but is actually caused by a fungus, not worms.

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Examples:


wormy pecan


ambrosia ("wormy") maple (these holes, however, were NOT caused by worms but by beetles)


wormy beech veneer with accurate color and closeup with bad color


wormy persimmon and ash


end grain of a piece of wormy ash


wormy spruce


sample plank of September elm that is VERY wormy


sample plank of wormy madrone


wormy chestnut


wormy tupelo bowl