There is a beetle, about 0.8 cm long, belonging to the family Blind stinkbug. It used to drill holes in lead water pipes, which made people find this problem hard.
In 1960s, the lead metal protective layer on overhead communication wires in Japan was often damaged, resulting in hundreds of communication accidents every year. Later, it was found to be a bat moth larva parasitic on the surface of lead layer. It is only as big as a grain of rice, with a pair of big teeth on its head, and mainly eats lead. It can gnaw through the lead protective layer with a thickness of 1.5mm in more than 10 days, and the gnawing speed is amazing.
There is a tree peak in Germany, which likes to live in groups on wires or outdoor antennas and can completely chew up the lead protective layer.
The metal surface secretes an acidic solution, which can corrode many small holes on the metal surface.
In the forest of northern Saudi Arabia, there is a strange bird with a small white pointed head, a big round black body and a broken gong. This kind of bird likes to eat iron things-nails, etc. The stomach of this bird contains a lot of hydrochloric acid and gastric juice. Once the nails are eaten, they slowly dissolve. The locals gave it a veritable name, called "Iron Bird".
In China, according to the ancient book "History of Tianxianglou", "One hundred and fifty-two pieces of silver were eaten by termites, and when the ants died and put them into the furnace for incineration, they still got one hundred and fifty-two pieces of silver." This shows that it is practical for termites to eat metal. There is such a thing in Australia: a group of termites bit through a lead wall and got into a cellar. They "drank" more than half of 7000 kilograms of beer in wooden barrels, then bit through a brick wall, entered the billiard room of a hotel and ate all the wood.
The magical "power" of termites may be very surprising. Why can termites eat silver? Why can it pass through lead walls and brick walls?
It turns out that termite mouthparts secrete high concentration of formic acid. When silver meets formic acid, a chemical reaction will occur to generate powdered silver formate, so that termites can swallow powdered silver formate effortlessly. However, these silver formate will not be digested and absorbed by termites, and after decomposition, it will form black powder metal and remain in termites. Of course, these powdered metals can still be reduced to silver when they reach the melting point of silver at high temperature. Formic acid secreted by termites can also react with lead walls to make them bite through, and can also corrode brick walls into holes to make them smooth.