Southern Mulch!

[Tomtall]

For those of you who are planning on putting down mulch this year.
I just got this message from my friend who owns a pest control company in
Arizona. He keeps up with the pest control news from the country and this
is what he told me.

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.

Is there anyway that this can be sent out to as many as possible ? I would
hate to see this happen to anyone.

[Racing Fan]

I received this same email from my girlfriend in Louisiana. A day before I watched a Lowe's Rep on TV. He said there is NO way---if there were termites at the time the trees were hauled to the mulching facility--they could survive the mulching process. Still, living in Florida, I'm not going to take any chances.

[bill boyes]

This is false check out www.Snopes.com

[PopPop]

This is false check out www.Snopes.com

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

[Tomtall]

Mulch

Bill & Pop Pop - Thanks for the heads up on the web site.

The following warning is posted on the web site, so use your own discresion.

Of course, no quarantine can be absolutely 100% effective, and there is always some chance, however small, that termites (and other pests) could turn up in mulch produced just about anywhere at any time, so consumers are always advised to be careful. Inspect every bag of mulch you purchase, and if you find insects in any of them, return them to the point of purchase.

[Bowers76-S]

Mulch

If ya'll are worried about the mulch...there is a type of mulch made of ground up tires. I cannot remember the official name but it works really well. Plus, it holds it's color longer than conventional mulch. However, make sure you put an edge around where you mulch because heavy rains will tend to wash it around.
Well, we are about to get slammed here in East Tennessee with a big storm...so time to batton down the hatches!

Nate

[C Stock Racer]

Before I retired I worked as a mechanic for a garbage company. They recycled green waste into compost or mulch as some call it. In this they also ground up demolition debri,pallets with paint, grease, chemicals etc on it. Alot of times there was even garbage mixed in. And of course every time they pushed a load out of a truck there was hydraulic fluid from the leaky packer cylinders. Sometimes 5 to 10 gals. This stuff should have had a warning label on it.