Bookworm (insect)

Pages riddled with bookworm damage on Errata.

Traces of a bookworm in a book

A bookworm / beetle grub found inside a paperback book, showing some of the damage it has wrought

Bookworm is a popular generalization for any insect that supposedly bores through books.^[1][2]

Actual book-borers are uncommon. Two moths, the common clothes moth and the brown house moth, will attack cloth bindings.^[3][4] Leather-bound books attract various beetles, such as the larder beetle^[5] and the larva of the black carpet beetle^[6] and Stegobium paniceum.^[7] Larval death watch beetles and common furniture beetles will tunnel through wood and paper (if it is nearby the wood).^[8][9]

Booklice

A major book-feeding insect is the book or paper louse (also known as booklouse or paperlouse). These are tiny (under 1 mm), soft-bodied wingless Psocopterans (usually Trogium pulsatorium), which actually feed on microscopic molds and other organic matter found in ill-maintained works (e.g., cool, damp, dark, and undisturbed areas of archives, libraries, and museums), although they will also attack bindings and other book parts. The booklouse is not a true louse.^[10]

By the twentieth century, modern bookbinding materials thwarted much of the damage done to books by various types of book-boring insects.^[11]

See also

• Booklouse
• Woodworm

References

Further reading

• "John Francis Xavier O'Conor, Facts about bookworms: their history in literature and work in libraries (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1898.)
• John V. Richardson Jr., “Bookworms: The Most Common Insect Pests of Paper in Archives, Libraries, and Museums”
• "Timber Borers - Anobium & Lyctus Borers"
• "Study on integrated pest management for libraries and archives" - prepared by Thomas A Parker for the General Information Programme and UNISIST (Paris: Unesco, 1988)