is this termites eating my retaining wall?

[Roonis]

I just noticed this morning that there was a pile of sawdust along my pressure treated lumber retaining wall.

Can anybody confirm whether this is termites or not?

thanks

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/5725/sam0084y.jpg
By roonisbabbonis (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/roonisbabbonis) at 2012-07-16

[Techhead]

Hard to confirm, BUT can be a few other critters to concider.
Carpenter Ants - Large black ants
Carpenter Bees - They look like bumble bees but are much darker in colour. Plus the hole would be the size of a penny or larger.

Google to see if termites are know to be in your area. I know realestate agents are privy to where they have been spotted in the Toronto area. Might be the same for the Ottawa area??

[t3359]

Interesting - I had thought that PT lumber was resistant to termites/ants, but a quick Google say they do.

Do you see anything crawling around the area? I'd assume you'd see them for a mess that big.

bjl

[redblue]

Pt lumber, especially when cut, provide shelter for things like termites. They find a snug protected home inside.

Best way to check would be to dismantle some the wall and find the bugs doing the damage.

[Roonis]

thanks for all your replies and suggestions. I haven't seen any ants or bees crawling around but I'm really not home very often.

I'll try a can of RAID or some insectide and if that doesn't work, then I'll hire a professional exterminator.

Taking apart my retaining wall is a huge task for me. How would I put it back? :)

[woof]

The old style PT lumber used to contain arsenic which would give any bug a pretty nasty tummy ache, but they removed the arsenic because they thought it was too dangerous and reformulated things decades ago so it's probably not as resistant to bugs as it once was.