Katrina termite issue?

[Doug Kanter]

[Jim Tiberio]

Man I'd hate thinking of myself as falling for a crap chain letter but since I will be going a lot of mulch work around my yard this spring I figured I'd ask, could the following e-mail warning be legit?:

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 Lowe's 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.

[Jim Tiberio]

Thanks, it even made Number 1 on Snopes top 25 Hottest rumors, I should have gone there first.

[Dr. Hardcrab]

I have received that e-mail about 10 times now and the last I looked, Snopes said it was "undetermined". Glad they finally said it was false...

[gfretwell]

Mulch is still a natural termite and carpenter and attractant, even if it doesn't come with them. After a particularly bad carpenter ant infestation, that were living in mulch, I will never use it within 50' of my house again.