creating an anti marine woodborer environment comprises introducing into wood an activated aminopolycarboxylate complexing agent apc with the following structure wherein x is an ester or an amide linker is any suitable linker or can be absent y is a chemical group capable of forming at least one covalent bond to chemical structures present in wood is provided in another embodiment the method of creating an anti marine woodborer environment comprises introducing into wood a biocide impregnating solution as described herein followed by a cross linking agent such as for example dcc dic edc hatu and hbtu as described above the steps may be reversed in such a way that the cross linking agent is added followed by the biocide impregnating solution as used herein the term u201c biodegradable u201d refers to a compound that under aerobic biodegradation in an aquatic environment has greater than or equal to about 70 biodegradation percentage of theoretical carbon dioxide evolution after 28 days when measured according to the sturm test which has been designated method 301b by the organization for economic cooperation and development preferably the biodegradable biocides comprising the present invention have a biodegradation of greater than about 80 and more preferably biodegradation is greater than or equal to about 90 each of the described embodiments and features applies to each aspect as appropriate the following examples are merely an illustration of the invention and should not be construed in a limiting way concentrations in are w w unless otherwise stated the aim of this example is to show the leaching of edds in.