BAD MULCH

[madgardener]

I got this from Spunkie, I want to get hold of the Agricultural department and follow up some inquiries but I had to post this to get a feed back......thanks in advance. madgardener ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm glad the area is recovering. Have you heard anything about the mulch coming thru Louisiana? Will they mulch the downed trees there too?

Heres what was posted:

FW: [Fwd: Buyer beware!]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 where it came from.

Here's the link:

Click here: LSU AgCenter . Formosan Subterranean Termites Portal

Original Message -----

[cat daddy]

Tell Spunkie that he's spreading the latest Internet hoax.

Urban Legends

E-mail warns that buying mulch from home improvement stores may spread the Formosan subterranean termite.

Status: False.

Home Depot does not use any mulch suppliers from the New Orleans area.

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.

[George Shirley]

It's not just mulch from NO folks. I live in Rita hit SW Louisiana and we lost a lot of trees, I would say 60% of those in our area. All were ground up by FEMA at diverse locations. Most of our oak trees were infested with Formosan termites before the storm. I lost a 400 yo white oak from my front yard. Know for certain the Formosans were in the tree, it got ground up too.

George

[Elizabeth]

A quick search on google provides multiple hits about the email rumor spreading about mulch. There is a quarantine in place since October 3, 2005 to prevent movement of wood products, including mulch and architectural wood from out of the parishes infested with the Formosan termite. Please do not feed the hysteria with false rumors. Quarantine violations should be reported to the La Dept of Agriculture.

[madgardener]

[Louis P Quist]

MORE BULLSHIT SPREAD BY INTERNET!!!!!!

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, 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

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) 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. :) :) With the amount of debris in question and seeing the Louisiana government in action this Fall...I just can't get a warm and fuzzy feeling generated by your response.

[Doug Kanter]

Lar, be serious. The only way a person could get around the quarantine would be to discreetly pay off public officials. I have NEVER heard of such a thing actually happening, especially in Louisiana.

[klancy O'Connor]

Stalk anyone today "cat daddy?"

[glenon]

Ha! I have gotten Bad Mulch! It was made up of boards from all kinds of things, maybe some clean mulch in it, but not much. Yeah, if a dollar can be made from the wood from lousiana, it will be.

And no problems with money and accountability? LOL! Lousiana has a long history of corruption, of course so do most cities.

[Doug Kanter]

Oh come on. That's part of the bible belt. Surely you're not suggesting that upstanding religious people would be corrupt. :-)

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) Oh come on. That's part of the bible belt. Surely you're not suggesting that :) upstanding religious people would be corrupt. :-) :) :) Must of been Yankee carpet-ba, er I mean mulch-baggers

[Bill R]

As you know by now, the information was not true. Some of our local TV stations have been running stories about this lie for weeks. One "consumer reporter" said this was a vendetta against the large discount stores (mainly Home Depot) started by a disgruntled ex-employee.