Are New Orleans termites lurking in local bags of mulch?!
Warren at the Pentagon is one of many listeners who forwarded me an email making the rounds. It warns homeowners not to buy wood mulch at the big box stores in our area, because the bags are teeming with Formosan subterranean termites. The email claims that the state of Louisiana had all their Katrina damaged trees chipped up and the infested mulch shipped out of state. A link to a legitimate LSU website at the end of the email has many people believing its not a hoax. But that’s because they didn’t read the information at that LSU site. It explains that the opposite is true; the state put a quarantine on all cellulose-paper, cardboard and wood-back in October. The hoax email is rife with other errors as well. But that doesn’t mean that wood mulch is safe-its not. Wood mulches harm plants, stain homes and can lead our NATIVE subterranean termites right to your tasty framing. Use compost or shredded leaves instead. And don’t have ANY mulch-even stone-running right up to the house. Alway
