Termites Attack Trac?

[Michael Cacioppo]

Sorry for the bait and switch heading , but here is some info I came across which may or may not be helpful to some of you gardeners. Lucky the Trac bed is composite and not wood.



WARNING

>

>

> If you buy mulch this spring and summer, make sure you know where it

> came

> from.

>

> 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 wher e the Formosan

> Termites

> has gotten a stronghold 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 there apparently is no good

> control

> against them, so tell your friends that own homes to avoid cheap

> mulch and know

> were it came from.

>

> Shortcut to: _http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/termites/_

> (http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/termites/)

 

[BobPat Groves]

This story was found to be untrue.

You can check to see if e-mails like this is true by going to www.urbanlegends.com or www.snopes.com

 

[EddieS'04]

This story is true..it was in the local houston news 2 days ago...

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Based partially on true facts, but exaggerated:

 

[Jeffrey Travis]

So we are supposed to believe everything the news reports? The weatherpeople have the best 'batting avg' when it comes to reporting the truth and we know what a bad rap they get.

 

[Richard L]

I is a hoax!



Any mulch you put around your house should be cypress or redwood mulch. Any other wood type is known to attract insects like termites!!! If a lot of this mulch came from the southern states hit by last seasons hurricanes, it may be cypress wood mulch which is decay and insect resistant, and would be a very good mulch to use around you house.



...Rich

 

[TomT]

Actually this was the article in the Houston Chronicle:

March 4, 2006, 9:48AM

In the end, termite rumor is mulch ado about nothing

New Orleans' threat begins and ends on Internet

By ZEKE MINAYA

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Riding the communication slipstream of the Internet, a rumor spread through cyberspace Friday sending shivers down the spines of Houston homeowners.

Ravenous Formosan Subterranean Termites, infesting the mountains of inexpensive mulch made from downed trees in New Orleans, were making their way across Texas and the country.

Louisiana officials were supposedly giving away this Trojan mulch to anyone who could haul it away. It was only a matter of time before the bug-infested mulch found its way onto the shelves of home centers.

As with many Internet rumors, however, the coming termite invasion proved to be less than the sum of its parts.

Sure, there were plausible elements, but ultimately it wasn't true.

The Formosan infestation in New Orleans is extensive, and there are more than the usual mounds of mulch there because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

But government officials have instituted safeguards to keep the termites from spreading, experts said.

Denise Wolever, a southwest Houston homeowner, said she forwarded the false Web bulletin Friday morning to her neighbors.

By early evening it had been refuted, and she exhaled.

"I was aware of the termites and the damage that they can do, and everything seemed logical to me in the e-mail [rumor]," she said. But "it looks like it's a non-issue," Wolever said.

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry moved quickly to dispel the rumors.

In a media release Friday, a department official asked those who were concerned to not "believe everything you read on the Internet."

 

[Ben Poche]

it is true i see this with my own eyes they took over all the parks and made big 40+ feet tall piles 1000+ feet long and wide of mulch out of all the down trees and most of them had termites. that is why most people here are not buying mulch

 

[Gerald Pierce]

I went to the link in the original post, and there it talked about the issue, but also said that the stuff could not leave the area without being treated.



It's good to be aware of the potential problem, so that you can at least check the stuff for bugs before you spread it all around your house.

 

[Michael Cacioppo]

My posting was to give a possible heads up. I am sure that any reputable place such as Home Depot, Lowes, etc. will use only treated mulch. My concern was for some of the fly-by-night guys that may offer basement prices. It was just to make folks aware of a potential problem.