Bugs on ACQ (Treated) Lumber?

wiz561

Hi!

I was in the middle of setting up my railings and bought some pressure treated (ACQ) wood about two or three weeks ago. I stored it in my garage so that it would dry out a little better. At the time of purchase, I didn't know anything different about the lumber.

Yesterday, I picked one of them up, and it had a bunch of bugs all over it running around. They were very tiny bugs, and they were just on the surface. Nothing penetrated the wood. I haven't checked the garage yet, as I was on a mission to get done with the railing.

Does anybody know what these might be? I'm now starting to freak out that they were termites, but from what I read, termites don't like ACQ wood. Could it be something else? I live outside of Chicago, and it's been really HOT for the past couple of days.

Thanks!

PAbugman

That isn't termite behavior, especially in the northeast (subterranean termites). I assume that you didn't catch any for identification. I feel safe in saying that they are incidental to anything and not important. Happened during storage.

wiz561

Phew, that's a relief. My parents live about 40 minutes from me (closer to Chicago), and they've had severe termite damage to their house. I remember my dad digging the tunnels in the drywall and the termites just falling out. We just built our house and moved in a few months ago. I would be kicking myself if we got termites because of a railing I installed.

Unfortunately, I didn't capture or take any pictures of them. I'll have to look around more in the garage and see if I can capture any of them.


Thanks for the quick response!