Termites Warning..................

iluvwesties

<font color=green>Always planning the "Next" trip!
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
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I just got this is my email today :surfweb:


" 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.

Most likely, you too will be forwarding this on to those in your address book. Making sure your neighbors are aware might be in your best interest. Not to mention verbally spreading the word!!!!! Printing this & posting to bulletin boards would be another idea.

PLEASE HELP IN CREATING AWARENESS & SPREADING THE WORD!
TELL EVERYONE!! YOU'LL BE GLAD YOU DID."

Yikes :scared1:

And to think that US Customs got mad at me for having a muffin in my carry-on :rolleyes:

iluvwesties (aka Carol) :wave2:
 
UrsulasShadow said:
Internet hoax...check it out on snopes.com.


This is one time I disagree with snopes.com. Here is a paragraph from their article:

[font=Trebuchet MS,Bookman Old Style,Arial] Although the possibility always exists that wood products moved from one area to another might harbor and spread termites (no matter how stringent the controls in place to prevent such an occurrence), the gist of the message quoted above — that tons of termite-infested trees are being been hauled away from the New Orleans by anyone who wants them, then turned mulch that will soon be showing up (with termites) in major home improvement chain stores all over the U.S. — is overblown. For starters, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry imposed a quarantine on several parishes back in October 2005 specifically to prevent the accidental movement of Formosan subterranean termite to other areas. According to that agency's Assistant Commissioner, the disposal of wood-based debris within those parishes is being monitored to ensure that the end results are not transported outside the quarantined area.

[/font]
Here is my response: "Yeah, right."
They did nothing right in response to Hurricane Katrina. Now I am supposed to belive that they are monitoring the transportation of termite infested trees? Excuse me if I don't believe it.
 
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Urban Legends and Folklore

Urban Legends and Folklore Formosan Termites in Mulch from New Orleans Hurricane Debris

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

Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: Feb. 2006
Status: False
Analysis: See below



Email example contributed by Carolyn H., 23 February 2006:
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.




Comments: The Formosan subterranean termite has long been recognized as a serious problem in southern Louisiana, so serious in fact that in October 2005 the state's Department of Agriculture and Forestry imposed a quarantine on all wood debris from parishes affected by Hurricane Katrina. The declaration reads, in part, as follows:

The movement of any wood or cellulose material from the named parishes is prohibited unless either (1) such wood or cellulose material has been fumigated or otherwise treated for Formosan termites and is approved for movement by the Commissioner or his designee(s), or (2) the Commissioner or his designee(s) gives written authorizations for untreated wood or cellulose material to be moved from the named parishes.
The ban on removing wood waste from southern Louisiana is also mentioned in a November 12, 2005 article in USA Today describing hurricane cleanup operations in greater New Orleans:
In Louisiana, crews haul the waste to one of 150 dumps, transfer stations and temporary collection sites. Some is buried whole, some pulverized in giant grinders. Woody vegetation is chipped, then burned, buried or mulched. No wood waste can leave the state because it could contain voracious Formosan termites.
So, while it is certainly possible that some Katrina wood debris has crossed the state line through the negligence or unscrupulousness of private individuals (though no evidence of that has surfaced so far), Louisiana would be in violation of its own quarantine rules if it were true that, as claimed in the email, "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."
Statement from Lousiana Dept. of Agriculture & Forestry:

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Office of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, has quarantines in place in the Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita affected parishes of Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington.
All woody debris in the quarantined areas is going to an approved landfill within the designated quarantine area. There are a multitude of government (state and federal) agencies that are looking at this debris every day as it is deposited into these landfills. The contractors mulching and hauling the debris know the regulations and are abiding by them according to the quarantine requirements.

If there is anyone with knowledge of debris moving out of a quarantine area, they should contact our 24-hour hotline @ 225-925-3763. These are serious allegations and will be taken seriously.

Matthew Keppinger
Assistant Commissioner
Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry




Email This Article

Sources and further reading:

Efforts Under Way to Prevent Spread of Formosan Subterranean Termites in Mulch from Louisiana
LSU Agricultural Center, 3 March 2006
Imposition of Quarantine
Declaration of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, 3 October 2005

Experts Warn Against Spreading Termites After Storms
LSU Agricultural Center, 12 October 2005

Cleanup Crews Tackle Katrina's Nasty Leftovers
USA Today, 12 November 2005

Termites: Hidden, Hungry Invader Threatens City of Mardi Gras
CNN, 24 February 2004

And this is from another urban legends site. There is no guarantee that these pests won't travel in illegally transported wood, but the legend states that mass quantities of these products are going to make it to highly-regulated industries. I'd rather believe the several agencies reporting on this than some overblown rumor on the internet...wouldn't you? Just google the subject, you'll get many different sites to explore and make up your own mind which internet "alerts" to subscribe to and which ones are just paranoid hype.
 

They had a story in the Minneapolis paper about this too. They said that theoretically it could happen but since most of the trees go through shredders to make the mulch, then are bagged and transported for who knows how long the chances of the termites surviving are slim. Then, for us anyway, termites can't survive in our climate so they will be dead by winter.
 
UrsulasShadow said:
Internet hoax...check it out on snopes.com.


I received this e-mail too. Sent it to a friend who is a Master Gardener and said not to worry. E-mailed me this long article on why it could not be true. So, I'm not worrying.
 















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