Formosan Termites in Mulch from New Orleans Hurricane Debris?

There has been an email rumor that warns people of 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.

Email example below:

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 in to 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.

The Formosan Termites 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 inposed a quarantine on all wood debris from parishes affected by Hurricane Katrina. 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.

So, while it is certainly possible that some Katrina wood debris has crossed the state line through the negligence or unscrupulousness of private individuals, 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."

Did You Know?

Just a few useless and interesting facts.

Did you know?....It is impossible to lick your elbow.
Did you know?.....In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
Did you know?.....Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
Did you know?.....The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
Did you know?.....Every 5 seconds a computer gets infected with a virus.
Did you know?.....If you could count the number of times a cricket chirps in one minute, divide by 2, add 9 and divide by 2 again, you would have the correct temperature in celcius degrees...How do they know that?

Did you know?.....Hydrogen is an explosive gas. Oxygen supports combustion. Yet when these are combined it is water which is used to put out fires.
Did you know?.....If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
Did you know?.....The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.
Did you know?.....No piece of square dry paper can be folded in half more than 7 times
Did you know?.....During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen in the distance.
Did you know?.....In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined
Did you know?.....On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
Did you know?.....The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
Did you know?.....The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.
Did you know?....."Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
Did you know?.....The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.
Did you know?.....It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open? Next time you feel a sneeze coming try it!

Did you know?.....American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class

Did you know?.....A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight

Did you know?.....Over 75% of people who read this page will try to lick their elbow

Did you know?.....14% of all facts and statisticts are made up and 27% of people know that fact

Did you know?.....Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie

Did you know?.....Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day....each

Did you know?.....TYPEWRITER, is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard

Did you know?.....On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament buildings is an American flag

Did you know?.....Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first U.S. president whose name contains all the letters from the word 'Criminal'. The second was William Jefferson Clinton.