The action of Desulfovibrio vulgaris (Dv) during a corrosion process has been reported in literature, but the influence of imidazoline in the formation of biofilms is not clear, as well as the effect of bacteria on the efficiency of the corrosion inhibitors. The aim of this work is to determine the behavior of bacteria in the presence of imidazoline. Therefore, the growth of Dv, isolated and characterized from a morphological point of view, was monitored during 21 days, during which synthetic seawater was used as the culture medium, according to the ASTM D665-98 standard. Electrochemical noise (EN) was employed to establish the corrosion type generated by the microorganism on an AISI 1018 steel cylinder. The attack was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In order to evaluate the efficiency of the corrosion inhibitor, Tafel extrapolation was used; the optimum concentration of the inhibitor was used in the presence of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB). In general, two forms of corrosion were observed: localized corrosion (in the LAG phase) and mixed corrosion (in the LOG phase). (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.