Sail magazine did an excellent expose of polyestermites back in the late 70's. Unfortunately, I think the polyester lobby in Washington has worked to suppress knowledge of this insidious infestation. Alarmingly, there is recent evidence of a mutation that allows common polyestermites to digest epoxy...

: Several times you have indicated that you would be using polyester resin as a
: finish coat. I thought someone would have warned you about polyestermites
: by now, but it hasn't happened, so I thought I had better do it. I know
: they are really bad in Florida.

: It's not really surprising that there has been no warning, as polyestermites
: are a really sneaky little critter, and most people have never seen one
: and don't know anything about them. They look just like the polyester they
: are eating, so unless you have some way to detect them, you could be
: looking at what appears to be a really nice finish and it would be
: polyestermites busy munching away.

: The problem is, when they run out of polyester to eat, they leave, taking
: your beautiful finish with them. That's why you don't see polyester suits
: much any more. Some guy would be walking down the street in a well
: tailored polyester suit and the polyestermites would eat the last of the
: polyester, then leave, and the guy is standing there in his skivies,
: unless he was wearing polyester skivies....well, you get the picture. It
: was embarrasing, and there were a lot of complaints, but no solution to
: the problem was ever found, so polyester suits just kind of died out.

: Fortunately for you, you have used epoxy to build your boat. If you had used
: polyester throughout, you could go out one day and pick up your boat to go
: paddling and end up with an arm load of disconnected strips.
: Polyestermites don't eat epoxy. It gives them really bad gas and tends to
: give them away.

: Detecting them can be a really vexing problem. If I were you, and going to
: use a clear finish, I would mix a couple of small batches with some bright
: colored dye in them, maybe dayglo yellow and dayglo orange. Then I would
: sprinkle little spots of these colors all over the boat. That way, when
: you check your boat, if the colored spots are moving, then you know you
: have polyestermites and you can get the exterminator in to get rid of
: them. You also might check with your local surf board place to see how
: they handle the problem.

: I thought you ought to be warned. Hope this helps. Good paddling

: James