The common furniture beetle is a good flier. Adults take to the air from spring through September, with an emergence peak in July and August.
That is when the insect is active, and small heaps of bore-dust can then be seen on wooden objects, on building timber and panelling, which are obvious signs of its presence.
An average 12 to 40 eggs (many more in optimal conditions) are laid at a time, in separate batches, in wood crevices, tunnels and former galleries of infested woods.
Eggs are about 0.5 mm in size and are hard to spot due to their small size; they are a milky-white colour and lemon-shaped.
Incubation lasts about 2 weeks and as soon as they come out, newborn larvae immediately bore and tunnel deep into the wood.
Larval development up to the nymphal stage very much depends on wood nutrient quality, on the temperature and hygrometry of infested sites, and also on prior wood degradation by lignin-degrading fungi.
It can last between 8 and 36 months, and even up to 10 years in unfavourable conditions.
It is optimal when temperatures are around 22°C, and relative humidity outside the substrate is 50 to 60%.
Nymphosis lasts about 15 days and then adults leave the wood by boring a circular, 1- to 3-mm flight hole to reach the outer environment. 
The full development cycle (from egg-laying to adult emergence) lasts between 1 and 4 years depending on thermo-hygrometric conditions.
It is much shortened (down to a few months) in the case of a lignin-degrading fungus infestation.
Under hot climates, there are 2 generations per year.
Adults live 4 weeks on an average.

The common furniture beetle is particularly harmful to the soft part of manufactured and crafted woods, whether from resiniferous or deciduous trees (old furniture, sculptures, paintings, works of art, roof timbers, beams, floors, ...) Old furniture is particularly infested by that species. It only infests the sapwood part of resiniferous and deciduous species when the wood has formed duramen, and it infests all parts, duramen included, if the wood is contaminated by lignin-degrading fungi. Alder, beech, walnut, pine, poplar, chestnut and fir are particularly affected, but oak and ash-wood are rarely affected. Dense tropical woods are little affected by the common furniture beetle’s larval development. Conversely, white woods are severely infested. The common furniture beetle can also develop in old books and archives, which causes important damage in libraries The circular flight holes, together with the galleries bored in all directions of the wood grain, severely compromise wood resistance but also make it possible to spot the insect’s presence. However, the emergence holes and bore-dust that can often be seen do not automatically indicate active infestation: infestation can sometimes have occurred long before. The fine, grain-like, peanut-shaped dust pellets are characteristic of a few species of the Anobiidae family, including Nicobium castaneum (cf. fact-sheet) and Oligomerus ptilinoides (cf. fact-sheet). Due to their size and circular shape, adults’ emergence holes can be mistaken for those bored by Lyctidae (Lyctus and Trogoxylon genera), but Anobium punctatum’s dust pellets make it possible to tell between them (Lyctidae’s bore-dust is powdery and looks like extra-fine flour).
 

A. punctatum has a worldwide distribution. It is present especially in temperate climate zones (Europe, South-East Africa, Australia, the United States, French overseas territories…).
In France it is particularly well established in the West and the South-West, where climatic conditions (especially humidity) are more favourable to its development.

Nicobium castaneum
Oligomerus ptilinoides