The Biology of Wood-Boring Teredinid Molluscs

A ubiquitous pest of all manner of timber in the sea, teredo— the shipworm, causes damage worth millions of pounds every year all over the world. Hidden protectively within the “heart” of both fixed and floating timber, and hardly visible from the outside, these borers work silently and reduce to soft sawdust even if it is the most resistant timber. Rasping with their shells mechanically, these living drills draw a major part of their nourishment from the hard cellulose. Unseen even by experts, this exotic menace converted solid pillars and piers into weak and fragile “honeycombs.” Along the entire seafront, bridges collapsed, piers crashed and boat hulls and wharf-piling crumbled. Like an unseen typhoon, it swept up the coast leaving a trail of destruction along its path. Though present in all seas, shipworms are particularly destructive in the tropical waters where they eat in discriminately every material of plant origin.