Bad Mulch - I got this email today.

I got this today but I am not sure how true it is

I came across this on the Better Homes and Gardens discussion site and thought anyone with trees or flowerbeds should be aware of this.

If you use mulch around your house be very careful about buying mulch this year. After the hurricane in New Orleans many trees
were blown over. These trees were then turned into mulch and the state is trying to get rid of tons and tons of this mulch to any state or company who will come and haul it away. So it will be showing up in Home Depot
and Lowes at dirt cheap prices with one huge problem; Formosan Termites will be the bonus in many of those bags. New Orleans is one of the few areas in the country where the Formosan Termite has gotten a strong hold
and most of the trees blown down were already badly infested with those termites. Now we may have the worst case of transporting a problem to all parts of the country that we have ever had. These termites can eat a house in no time at all and we have no good control against them, so tell
your friends who own homes to avoid cheap mulch and know where it came from.

Here's the link:

http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/en/environment/insects/Termites/formosan_termites/
"
Where: LSU AgCenter. Formosan Subterranean Termites

Re: Bad Mulch - I got this email today.

I was told by my termite guy not to put ANY mulch around my house in my flower beds. They normally draw termites to the house and if you have a problem....and most of us on LI have some sort of termites, you dont want to give them anything to chew on!

Even those wood chips are food for termites!!

Re: Bad Mulch - I got this email today.

I have a bunch of woodchips in my back yard because I took two trees down. SO far I have zero termite issues... but I want to be preventative.

What is the best way of "cleaning them up?"

Re: Bad Mulch - I got this email today.

False according to Snopes.com

Click above to read more about it.


Formosan Termites

Claim: E-mail warns that buying mulch from home improvement stores may spread the Formosan subterranean termite.

Status: False.

Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2006]

Message edited 3/6/2006 4:08:25 PM.

Re: Bad Mulch - I got this email today.

We have red cedar mulch in multiple flower beds around our house. We have never had any termite issues. We had our house checked last year when we had 2 trees removed from our back yard just as a pre caution in case of disturbing and still nothing.

Re: Bad Mulch - I got this email today.

Re: Bad Mulch - I got this email today.

Wood mulch brings bugs but cedar does not it actually is a repellent...hint cedar lined closet!

Re: Bad Mulch - I got this email today.

When we were getting new mulch the guy in home depot told us that if you have a wood framed house (in FL is very rare as all the houses are made of cinder block) the wood chips you would not want to lay against the house as they are bad because it is an open invite to termites.

We got Euchalipstis (sp) chips and have had no problems.

In the spring though I do want to get the white pebbles instead of the mulch.