On Six Legs 

 

When I was growing up, there were some kids in our school who were known as bookworms. These kids always seemed to have their nose in a book.

I enjoyed reading as a child, but I am sure no one would have thought of me as a bookworm. That is because when given the choice in those days I would be outside communing with nature rather than poring over the printed page.

Most dictionaries define a bookworm as someone who is fascinated by reading; however, the online Urban Dictionary captures the essence of what I consider a bookworm with this definition: a person who is so fascinated by books that he does not know what is happening in the world.

We have all known people, young or old, like that – for example, those who miss an appointment because they are so engrossed in a book that they lose track of time. Such people are bookworms for sure.

Today bookworms of the human kind might be decreasing in numbers. That is because the use of books as a medium for conveying information or as entertainment is dwindling in this digital age.

More and more people, especially the young, are using computers for those purposes. For sure, there are people of all ages who are still bookworms. But based on my observations, many people today have their nose glued to a computer screen. I suppose we could call such people computer worms.

But wait. We can’t use “computer worm” for someone obsessed with reading a computer screen. That is because the term “worm” is already used to describe something else related to computers. A computer worm is the name of a standalone malware program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers.

“Bookworm” was first used to describe people. But the word later was also used for insects that feed on material in books – the paper, the glue, the cloth binding. There are several different kinds of insects that are called bookworms.

The lists of insects in the bookworm category include some beetles, cockroaches, silverfish and booklice. In general, the types of beetles that end up damaging books do so because the books are stored close to a food source used by the beetles. For example, the larvae of dermestid beetles that normally feed on animal products such as wool or leather could end up chewing into a book that was in contact with a wool carpet or other material where beetle larvae were feeding.

In similar fashion, an occasional beetle that feeds on wood will chew outside of the bookshelf and into a book in contact with the shelf. These are very uncommon examples of an insect becoming a bookworm, but it sometimes happens.

Cockroaches and silverfish both will feed on the glue that is used to fabricate the covers of hardbound books. These insects just gnaw at whatever material is used in the cover to consume the glue holding it in place. Silverfish are small soft-bodied insects without wings that can easily slip between the pages and the cover of a book to make a meal of the glue used in the binding.

Booklice are technically known as psocids and are not lice at all. These tiny insects feed on fungi or mold that can sometimes be found in stored grain or other materials. So, in general, books stored in high humidity conditions such as in damp basements are more likely to harbor mold and be damaged by booklice.

The best way to keep books from being damaged by bookworms of the insect type is to keep the books stored under low humidity conditions.

That, however, apparently was not the case for an old Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia set that I found in an antique store a few years ago. The entire set had been stored in a damp basement in a cardboard box with the spines of the books facing upward and another box of books stacked on top. Silverfish found the habitat inviting and had fed on the covers of each of the volumes.

I purchased Volume XIV, a tome that included 15 pages that dealt with insects under four “I” headings – insectivorous plants, insect-powder, insects and insects affecting farm crops. Just seemed appropriate. Here was a book that contained information about insects and insect damage that had literally been partially consumed by real bookworms.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Tom Turpin may write to him in care of this publication.