Wood worms

[Pack]

Does anyone have experience with Mexican wood worms? Possibly known by another name. Little black droppings about the size of fine sand. very tiny but bore into ships wood and I assume the black specs the size of sand are Droppings. Need to get rid of those critters.

[billknny]

More normally called shipworms, they aren’t worms at all but clams with shells evolved to drill into wood.

Do your searching on “shipworm” and you’ll find an ocean of info.

[Group9]

Teredo navalis, the naval shipworm, is a species of saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Teredinidae, the shipworms. This species is the type species of the genus Teredo. Like other species in this family, this bivalve is called a shipworm, because it resembles a worm in general appearance, while at the anterior end it has a small shell with two valves which are specialised at boring through wood.

This species may have originated in the northeast Atlantic Ocean, but has spread around the world. It tunnels into underwater piers and pilings and is a major cause of damage and destruction to submarine timber structures and the hulls of wooden boats.

These things have destroyed many a fine wooden boat that was brought down here from up north.

[JPA Cate]

What the OP wrote does not sound like teredos. Where would he see the "little, black, like grains of sand" droppings? Not in the water, so maybe we are talking about a land based borer?

Termites leave little piles of sawdust by their holes, so not termites.

Sorry, Pack, I don't know what you're dealing with, but take some of the little black grains to your county agricultural agent (maybe they're eggs or scat), and possibly they can be identified. If you're in Mexico, ask around, someone will have an idea how to find out what it is that you're dealing with.

Ann