As Thud has alluded in his Twitter stream, I recently ordered an item online – a carved wooden box – which, alas, turned out to have termites.
There’s not much to the story, except in that how odd of an experience it was. I didn’t notice anything awry at first, I just put stuff in the box and put the box away. It was a few weeks later that I noticed the telltale signs of termites – tiny holes and lines of fine sawdust.
Still thinking I must be imagining things and that the sawdust may have been incense ash (the two look remarkably similar), I sealed the box in a freezer bag and set it aside. Later I checked again, and not only was there more sawdust in the bag, there was a hole in it. Yes: one of the bastards had decided to eat his way right out. I also found a body, though. I guess the world outside the bag proved too inhospitable.
It’s funny how surprised you can be by the presence of termites in something that is, to be fair, quite obviously made of wood. (For example, Thud’s reaction was “OMFG! Gross!!”) Anyway, the moral is, I guess, to inspect your newly-acquired wooden knick-knacks for termites.
The place I bought it from has already shipped a replacement, and yes, they said they checked it first.