NEWS

 

I have received questions from individuals asking about emails they received about wood chips and the Formosan Termite.

 

Netlore Archive:  Email rumor warns that Formosan termites from the New Orleans area are being spread to different parts of the U.S. in cheap garden mulch made from Hurricane Katrina wood debris

Subject: Fw: important if you buy mulch this year

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 were the Formosan Termites 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 that own homes to avoid cheap mulch and know were it came from.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_mulch_termites.htm

 

Quarantine on wood, cellulose material after hurricanes Katrina and Rita

http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/termites/

 

 

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


Status:   False.

 

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/termites.asp