That thrift store dresser turned out to be a termite buffet

Last week I grabbed a 'solid wood' dresser from the Goodwill in Portland for $45 and brought it straight into my bedroom, only to find a pile of sawdust under the bottom drawer by morning. Turns out those little bugs had been munching on the back panels for months, and now I'm worried they spread to my other furniture. Has anyone else ever brought home something infested from a thrift shop, and how do you check for bugs before you commit?

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hayden72027d ago

Thrift stores are basically the wild west for this kind of stuff. You're not just buying furniture, you're buying whatever invisible life is hitching a ride on it. I've seen people bring home bed bugs from a mattress, roaches from a bookshelf, and now termites from a dresser. It's like the universe is telling us there's a reason some things get donated, you know? The odds are decent that someone dropped that thing off because it felt "off" in some way, not because they were just being generous. Now I'm side-eyeing every secondhand thing I own, including a lamp I got for five bucks last month that's probably got spider eggs in the wiring.