Worms I hate worms

[dicor]

I'm sitting on my boat right now getting ready to jump in the water with my mask, snorkel,putty knife and wire brush to scrap the crud left behind from dead worms off my prop and out-drive. I had it out yesterday and it felt like I was towing a barge my speedometer starts at 10mph it was not even moving. I hate worms, the scourge of Barnegat Bay.

 

[Nehalennia]

? What the hell? Worms? Where are they from?

 

[dicor]

They are called Marine worms and that's about all I know about them. The look like 1 inch pieces of string, but there are thousands of them. When they die they turn into something that resembles a soft concrete. It comes of pretty easy with a putty knife. I'm amazed that the turning prop does not throw them off, but it doesn't.
View attachment 20475

That picture is not my prop, I found that on the internet. But it's very similar to what mine looks like. I already cleaned the back prop then it began raining pretty hard gotta do the front prop now.

 

[edsmax]

EWWW.... Seriously though, I have never heard of this.

 

[dicor]

I wish I never heard of this neither!

 

[Bridog]

Wow, I've never had this problem just North of you in the Manasquan? I guess I'll stay right where I'm at. Good luck with your worms.

 

[rcknecht]

I thought they were called ship worms.. I call them something else... I have not had too much trouble with them lately, the barnacles are more of the problem...

 

[Jeepguy]

Hmm maybe our fish flies aren't so bad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AngecWYC5Q

 

[Nehalennia]

Holy crap. I just puked in my mouth a little. I'd freak out if I pulled my boat and it looked like that. What about an acid wash?

 

[dicor]

I had some time to search the internet to try and find out just what type of creature I'm dealing with. I think this is what we got down here. What I found is that these things like to be around hotter water. There is a Nuclear Power plant about a mile or so away from the Marina outputting hot water from the cooling process, this is probably the reason why it's a localized issue and not the entire Jersey coast. The article says they can reach 5" I've never seen them any longer than an inch. Of course living next to a Nuke Plant they may transform into the worms seen in the movie Tremors! haha On a good note the plant is closing soon and hopefully the worms will disappear.



Teredo ( Shipworm )

Teredo navalis
Size: to 5 "
This worm-like creature is actually a bivalve mollusk with a greatly reduced shell, which it uses to bore tunnels into wood. They typically spend their entire lives in a tunnel in a single piece of wood. In addition to feeding off the wood, they can also filter-feed like ordinary bivalves.
In the age of wooden ships, teredos and other wood-borers were a tremendous problem. In our area, more wood boring is done by crustaceans than Teredos.

 

[rcknecht]

The the Weapons Station in Earle, NJ, their wood dock had to be replaced concrete because of Ship Worms... I was told the ship worms were not a problem when the water was polluted...

 

[dicor]

That's good to hear. I always felt that the water was clean here, especially for a bay on the east coast. There's no odor or plant growth, the crabbing is plentiful. Hopefully once the Nuke shuts down the worms will be given the Royal Flush.